1 


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UBRARY 


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r-f/o      - 


PICTURES  OF  ARCTIC  TRAVEL. 


GREENLAND. 


PICTURES 


ARCTIC  TRAVEL 


KY 

DR.  ISAAC  I.  HAYES, 

AUTHOR  OF  "TnK  OPEN  POLAR  SEA,"    "AN  AKCTIC  BOAT   JOURNEY, 

"  THE  LAND  OF  DESOLATION,"    "  CAST  AWAY 

IN  THE  COLD,"  ETC. 


G REENLAND. 


NEW    YORK: 

Copyright,  1881, 

G.    W.    Carleton   &    Co.,  Publishers. 

LONDON  :  S.  LOW  &  CO. 

MDCCCLXXXI. 

- 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year 

by  ISAAC  I.   HAYES,  M.D.. 

in  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress, 

at  Washington,  D.  C. 


TO 


WARRE  N     SAWYER, 


OF    BOSTON, 


In  grateful  appreciation  of  a  long  and  never- 
failing  friendship,  this  volume  is  affectionately  in- 
scribed by 

THE  AUTHOR. 


PREFACE. 


THIS  book  is  not  a  narrative  of  travel.  The  purr 
pose  of  the  author  has  been  to  draw,  from  per- 
sonal experience,  some  pen-pictures  of  life  and  na- 
ture among  the  sublime  mountains,  crags,  glaciers, 
and  icebergs  of  Greenland.  His  original  design 
was  to  publish  a  work  of  more  pretentious  size,  in 
three  parts,  to  be  entitled,  respectively,  "  Green- 
land," "  Iceland,"  and  "  The  Arctic  Sea  ;"  but,  as 
he  found  the  matter  expanding  to  cumbersome  pro- 
portions, he  has  divided  the  three  parts  into  as 
many  volumes. 

NEW  YORK,  January,  1881. 


CONTENTS. 


I.  THE  DOCTOR " 

II.  THE  SAVAGE 59 

III.  SNOW  AND  ICE 95 


I. 


THE    DOCTOR 


"  WHERE  rose  the  mountains,  there  to  him  were  friends  ; 
Where  rolled  the  ocean,  thereon  was  his  home  ; 
Where  a  blue  sky,  and  glowing  clime  extends, 
He  had  the  passion  and  the  power  to  roam  ; 
The  desert,  forest,  cavern,  breaker's  foam 
Were  unto  him  companionship  ;  they  spake 
A  mutual  language,  clearer  than  the  tome 
Of  his  land's  tongue,  which  he  would  oft  forsake 

For  Nature's  pages  glaz'd  by  sunbeams  on  the  lake." 

BYRON'S  CHILDE  HAROLD. 


PICTURES 


ARCTIC    TRAVEL 


i. 

THE    DOCTOR. 

As  my  own  fancy  led  me  into  the  Greenland  seas, 
so  chance  sent  me  into  a  Greenland  port.  It  was  a 
choice  little  harbor,  a  good  way  north  of  the  Arctic 
Circle,  fairly  within  the  realm  of  hyperborean  bar- 
renness— very  near  the  remotest  border  of  civilized 
settlement.  And  civilization  was  exhibited  there 
by  unmistakable  evidences — a  very  dilute  civiliza- 
tion it  is  true,  yet  such  as  it  was  outwardly  recog- 
nizable ;  for  Christian  habitations  and  Christian  be- 
ings were  in  sight  from  the  vessel's  deck — at  least 

ii 


12  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

some  of  the  human  beings  who  appeared  upon  the 
beach  were  dressed  like  Christians — and  veritable 
smoke  curled  gracefully  upward  into  the  bright  air 
above  the  roofs  of  houses  from  veritable  chim- 
neys. 

We  had  been  fighting  the  Arctic  ice  and  Arctic 
storms  for  so  long  a  time,  that  it  was  truly  refresh- 
ing to  get  into  this  good  harbor.  The  little  craft 
which  had  borne  us  thither  seemed  positively  to 
enjoy  her  repose  as  she  lay  quietly  to  her  anchors 
on  the  still  waters,  in  the  calm  air  and  blazing  sun- 
shine of  the  Arctic  noonday.  As  for  myself,  I  was 
simply  wondering  what  I  should  find  ashore.  A 
slender  fringe  of  European  custom,  bordering  native 
barbarism  and  its  offensive  accompaniments,  was 
what  I  anticipated  ;  for,  as  I  looked  upon  the  naked 
rocks  which  there,  as  in  other  Greenland  ports, 
afforded  solid  foundation  for  a  few  straggling  huts 
of  native  fishermen  and  hunters,  with  only  now  and 
then  a  more  pretentious  white  man's  lodge,  I  could 
hardly  imagine  that  much  would  be  found  seductive 
to  the  fancy  or  inviting  to  the  eye.  A  country  where 
there  is  no  soil  to  yield  any  part  of  man's  subsist- 
ence seemed  to  offer  such  a  slender  chance  for  man 
in  the  battle  of  life,  that  I  could  well  imagine  it  to 


The  Doctor.  13 

be  repulsive  rather  than  attractive.  Yet  I  was  eager 
to  see  how  poor  men  might  be  and  live. 

While  thus  looking  forward  to  a  novel  experience, 
I. was  unconsciously  preparing  myself  for  a  great 
surprise.  Whatever  there  might  be  of  poverty  in 
the  condition  of  the  few  dozens  of  human  beings 
who  there  forced  a  scanty  subsistence  from  the  sea, 
I  was  to  discover  one  person  in  the  place  who  did 
in  no  way  share  it — who,  born  as  it  might  seem  to 
different  destinies,  yet,  voluntarily  choosing  wild 
nature  for  companionship,  and  rising  superior  to  the 
forbidding  climate  and  the  general  desolation,  re- 
joiced there  in  his  own  strong  manhood,  and  lived 
seemingly  contented  as  well  with  himself  as  with  the 
great  world,  of  which  he  heard  from  afar  but  the 
faintest  murmurs. 

The  anchors  had  been  down  about  an  hour,  and 
the  bustle  and  confusion  necessarily  attending  an 
entrance  into  port  had  subsided.  The  sails  were 
stowed,  the  decks  were  cleared  up,  and  the  ropes 
were  coiled.  A  port  watch  was  set.  The  crew  had 
received  their  "liberty,"  and  there  was  much  won- 
dering among  them  whether  Esquimaux  eyes  could 
speak  a  tender  welcome.  Nor  had  the  Danish  flag 
been  forgotten.  That  swallow-tailed  emblem  of  a 


14  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

gallant  nationality,  which,  according  to  song  and 
tradition,  has  the  peculiar  distinction  of  having 

"  Come  from  heaven  down," 

was  fluttering  from  a  white  flag-staff  at  the  front  of 
the  government  house,  and  we  had  answered  its  dis- 
play by  running  up  our  own  Danish  colors  at  the 
fore,  and  saluting  them  with  our  signal-gun  in  all 
due  form  and  courtesy. 

Soon  after  reaching  the  anchorage,  I  had  dis- 
patched an  officer  to  look  up  the  chief  ruler  of  the 
place,  and  to  assure  him  of  the  great  pleasure  I 
should  have  in  calling  upon  him,  if  he  would  name 
an  hour  convenient  to  himself  ;  and  I  was  awaiting 
my  messenger's  return  with  some  impatience,  when, 
suddenly,  I  heard  the  thump  of  his  heavy  sea-boots 
on  the  deck  above. 

In  a  few  moments  he  entered  the  cabin,  and  re- 
ported that  the  governor  was  absent,  but  that  his 
office  was  temporarily  filled  by  a  gentleman  who 
had  been  good  enough  to  accompany  him  on 'board 
— "  the  surgeon  of  the  settlement,  Doctor  Molke," 
and  then  stepping  aside,  Doctor  Molke  passed 
through  the  narrow  doorway  and  stood  before  me, 
bowing.  I  bowed  in  return,  and  bade  him  wel- 


The  Doctor.  15 

come,  saying  in  English,  as  I  suppose,  just  what  any 
other  person  would  have  said  under  like  circumstan- 
ces, and  then  turning  to  the  officer,  I  signified  my 
wish  that  he  should  act  as  interpreter,  he  being  of 
the  same  nationality.  But  that  was  needless.  My 
Greenland  visitor  answered  me  in  the  language  of 
my  country,  with  as  little  hesitation  as  if  he  had 
spoken  none  other  all  his  life  ;  and,  in  conclusion, 
said,  "I  come  to  invite  you  to  my  poor  house  and 
to  offer  you  my  service.  I  can  give  you  but  a  feeble 
welcome  in  this  outlandish  place,  but  such  as  I  have 
is  yours  ;  and  if  you  will  accompany  me  ashore  I 
will  be  much  delighted." 

The  delight  was  mutual,  and  it  was  not  many 
minutes  before  we  were  pulling  towards  the  land, 
seated  in  the  stern-sheets  of  a  whale-boat. 

My  new-found  friend  interested  me  at  once.  The 
surprise  at  finding  myself  addressed  in  English  was 
increased  when  I  discovered  that  this  Greenland 
official  bore  every  mark  of  refinement,  culture,  and 
high  breeding.  His  manner  was  wholly  free  from 
restraint,  and  it  struck  me  as  something  odd,  that 
all  the  self-possession  and  ease  of  a  thorough  man 
of  the  world  should  be  exhibited  in  this  desert 
place.  He  did  not  seem  to  be  at  all  aware  that 


1 6  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

there  was  anything  incongruous  in  either  his  dress 
or  manner,  and  his  present  situation.  Yet  this  man, 
who  sat  with  me  in  the  stern- sheets  of  an  ice-bat- 
tered whale-boat,  pulling  across  a  Greenland  harbor 
to  a  Greenland  settlement,  might,  with  the  simple 
addition  of  a  pair  of  suitable  gloves,  have  stepped, 
as  he  was,  into  a  ball-room,  without  giving  rise  to  any 
other  remark  than  would  be  excited  by  his  bearing. 

His  graceful  figure  was  well  set  off  by  a  neatly 
fitting  and  closely  buttoned  blue  frock  coat,  orna- 
mented with  gilt  buttons,  embroidered  and  heavily 
braided  shoulder-knots.  The  Dannebrog  cross  upon 
his  breast  told  that  he  was  a  favorite  with  his  king. 
His  finely  shaped  head  was  covered  by  a  blue  cloth 
cap,  having  a  gilt  band  and  the  royal  emblems. 
Over  his  shoulders  was  thrown  a  cloak  of  mottled 
seal-skins,  lined  with  the  soft  and  beautiful  fur  of 
the  Arctic  fox.  His  cleanly  shaven  face  was  finely 
formed  and  full  of  force,  while  a  soft  blue  eye  spoke 
of  gentleness  and  good  nature,  and,  with  fair  hair, 
completed  the  evidences  of  Scandinavian  birth. 

My  curiosity  was  soon  greatly  excited. 

"  How,"  thought  I,  "  in  the  name  of  everything 
mysterious,  has  it  happened  that  such  a  man  should 
have  turned  up  in  such  a  place  ?  "  From  curiosity  I 


The  Doctor.  17 

passed  to  amazement  as  his  mind  unfolded  itself 
and  his  tastes  were  manifested.  I  was  prepared  to 
be  received  by  a  fur-clad  hunter,  a  coppery  faced 
Esquimau,  or  a  meek  and  pious  missionary,  upon 
whose  face  privation  and  penance  had  set  their  seal ; 
but  for  this  high-bred,  graceful,  and  evidently  ac- 
complished gentleman  I  was  not  prepared. 

I  could  not  refrain  from  one  leading  observation. 
"  I  suppose,  Dr.  Molke,"  said  I,  "  that  you  have  not 
been  here  long  enough  to  have  yet  wholly  exhausted 
the  novelty  of  these  noble  hills." 

"Eleven  years,  one  would  think,"  replied  he, 
"  ought  to  pretty  well  exhaust  anything ;  and  yet 
I  cannot  say  that  these  hills,  upon  which  my  eyes 
rest  continually,  have  grown  to  be  wearisome  com- 
panions, even  if  they  may  appear  something  forbid- 
ding." 

Eleven  years  among  these  barren  hills  !  Eleven 
years  in  Greenland !  Surely,  thought  I,  this  is 
something  "  passing  strange." 

The  scene  around  us  as  we  crossed  the  bay  was 
indeed  imposing,  and  although  desolate  enough,  was 
certainly  not  without  its  bright  and  cheerful  side. 
Behind  us  rose  a  majestic  line  of  cliffs,  climbing  up 
into  the  clouds  in  giant  steps,  picturesque  yet  solid — 


1 8  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

a  great  massive  pedestal,  as  it  were,  supporting 
mountain  piled  on  mountain,  with  caps  of  snow 
whitening  their  summits,  and  great  glaciers  hanging 
on  their  sides.  Before  us  lay  the  town,  built  upon  a 
gnarled  spur  of  primitive  rock,  which  seemed  to 
have  crept  from  underneath  the  lofty  cliffs  as  a 
serpent  from  its  hiding  place,  and  after  wriggling 
through  the  sea,  to  have  stopped  at  length  when  it 
had  almost  completely  inclosed  a  beautiful  sheet  of 
water  about  a  mile  long  by  half  a  mile  broad,  leav- 
ing but  one  narrow  winding  entrance  to  it.  Through 
this  entrance  the  swell  of  the  sea  could  never  come 
by  any  chance  to  disturb  the  silent  bay  which  lay 
there,  nestling  among  the  dark  rocks  beneath  the 
mountain  shadows  as  calmly  as  a  Swiss  lake  in  an 
Alpine  valley. 

But  the  rocky  spur  which  supported  on  its  rough 
back  what  there  was  of  the  town  wore  a  most  woe- 
begone and  distressed  appearance.  A  few  little 
patches  of  grass  and  moss  were  visible,  but  generally 
there  was  nothing  to  be  seen  but  the  cold,  gray-red, 
naked  rocks,  broken  and  twisted  into  knots  and 
knobs,  and  cut  across  with  deep  and  ugly  cracks. 
I  could  but  wonder  that,  on  such  a  dreary  spot, 
man  should  ever  think  of  seeking  a  dwelling-place. 


The  Doctor.  19 

My  companion  must  have  interpreted  my  thoughts, 
for  he  pointed  to  the  shore,  and  said  playfully,  "  Ah, 
it  is  true  you  behold  at  last  the  fruits  of  wisdom 
and  instruction — a  city  founded  on  a  rock."  And 
then,  after  a  moment's  pause  he  added,  "  Let  me 
point  out  to  you  the  great  features  of  the  new  won- 
der. First  to  the  right  there,  underneath  that  little 
low  black  peaked  roof,  dwells  the  royal  cook — a 
Dane  who  came  out  here  a  long  time  ago,  married  a 
native  of  the  country,  and  rejoices  in  a  brood  of 
half-breed  children,  among  whom  are  four  girls, 
rather  dusky,  but  not  ill-favored.  Next  in  order  is 
the  government  house,  that  pitch-coated  structure 
near  the  flag-staff.  This  is  the  only  building,  you 
observe,  that  can  boast  of  a  double  tier  of  windows. 
Next,  a  little  higher  up,  you  see,  is  my  own  lodge, 
bedaubed  with  pitch  to  protect  it  against  the  as- 
saults of  the  weather,  and  to  stop  the  cracks.  Down 
by  the  beach,  a  little  farther  on,  that  largest  build- 
ing of  all  is  the  storehouse,  where  the  governor 
keeps  all  sorts  of  traps  for  trade  with  the  natives, 
and  where  the  shops  are  in  which  the  cooper  puts 
together  the  oil  barrels  before  the  arrival  of  the 
Danish  ship,  and  where  other  like  industrial  pursuits 
are  carried  on.  A  little  farther  down,  you  observe  a 


2O  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

low  structure  where  the  oil  is  stored.  On  the  ledge 
above  the  shop  you  see  another  pitchy  building. 
This  furnishes  quarters  for  the  half-dozen  Danish 
employees — fellows  who,  not  having  married  native 
wives,  hunt  and  fish  for  the  glory  of  Denmark. 
Near  the  den  of  these  worthies  you  observe  another, 
a  duplicate  of  that  in  which  lives  the  cook.  There 
resides  the  royal  cooper,  and  not  far  from  it  are  two 
others,  not  quite  so  pretentious,  where  dwell  the 
carpenter  and  blacksmith,  all  of  whom  have  followed 
the  worthy  example  of  the  cook,  and  have  dusky 
sons  and  daughters  to  console  their  declining  years. 
You  may,  perhaps,  be  able  to  distinguish  a  few 
moss-covered  hovels  dotted  about  here  and  there  ; 
perhaps  there  may  be  twenty  of  them  in  all, 
though  there  are  but  few  in  sight.  These  are  the 
huts  of  native  hunters.  At  present  they  are  not 
occupied,  for,  being  without  roofs  that  will  turn 
water,  the  people  are  compelled  to  abandon  them 
when  the  snow  begins  to  melt  in  the  spring,  and  be- 
take themselves  to  seal-skin  tents,  some  of  which 
you  observe  scattered  here  and  there  among  the 
rocks.  And  now  I've  shown  you  everything,  just 
in  time  too,  for  here  we  are  at  the  landing." 

We  had  drawn  in  close  to  the  end  of  a  narrow 


The  Doctor.  21 

pier  run  out  into  the  water  on  slender  piles,  and 
now,  quickly  ascending  some  steps,  the  doctor  led 
the  way  up  to  his  house.  The  whole  settlement 
had  turned  out  to  meet  us — men,  women,  children, 
and  dogs,  which  latter,  about  two  hundred  in  num- 
ber, little  dogs  and  all,  set  up  an  ear-splitting  cry, 
wild,  and  strangely  in  keeping  with  every  other  part 
of  the  scene,  and,  like  nothing  so  much  as  the  dis- 
mal evening  concert  of  a  pack  of  wolves.  The 
children,  on  the  other  hand,  kept  quiet,  and  clung 
to  their  mothers,  as  all  children  do  in  exciting  times. 
The  mothers  grinned,  and  laughed,  and  chattered, 
as  becomes  the  gentler  sex  in  the  savage  state, 
while  the  men,  all  smoking  short  clay  pipes  (one  of 
their  customs  borrowed  from  civilization)  looked  on 
with  that  air  of  stolid  indifference  peculiar  to  the 
male  barbarian.  They  were  mostly  dressed  in  seal- 
skins, but  some  of  them  wore  greasy  Guernsey 
frocks  and  other  European  clothing.  Many  of  the 
women  carried  cunning  looking  babies  strapped 
upon  their  backs  in  seal-skin  pouches.  The  heads 
of  men  and  women  alike  were  for  the  most  part  cap- 
less,  but  every  one  of  the  dark,  beardless  faces  was 
surmounted  by  a  heavy  mass  of  straight  uncombed 
and  tangled  jet  black  hair.  There  were  some  half- 


22  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

breed  girls  standing  in  little  groups  upon  the  rocks, 
who,  adding  something  of  taste  to  the  simple  need  of 
an  artificial  covering  for  the  body,  were  attired  in 
dresses  which,  although  of  the  Esquimaux  fashion, 
were  quite  neatly  ornamented. 

While  passing  through  this  curious  crowd,  the  eye 
could  not  but  find  pleasure  in  the  novel  scene,  the 
more  especially,  as  the  delight  of  these  half-barba- 
rous people  was  excited  to  the  highest  pitch  by  the 
strange  being  who  had  come  among  them. 

But  if  what  the  eye  drank  in  gave  delight,  less 
fortunate  the  nose  ;  for  from  about  the  store-house 
and  the  native  huts,  and  indeed  from  almost  every- 
where, welled  up  that  horrid  odor  of  decomposing 
oil  and  flesh  peculiar  to  a  fishing-town.  On  this 
account,  if  on  no  other,  I  was  not  sorry  when  we 
arrived  at  our  destination. 

"You  like  not  this  Greenland  odor,"  said  my 
conductor.  "  Luckily  it  does  not  reach  me  here,  or 
I  should  seek  a  still  higher  perch  to  roost  on,"  say- 
ing which  he  opened  the  door  and  led  the  way  in- 
side, first  through  a  little  vestibule  into  a  square 
hall,  where  we  deposited  our  fur  coats,  and  then  to 
the  right  into  a  small  room,  furnished  with  a  table, 
an  old  pine  bench,  a  single  chair,  a  case  with  glass 


The  Doctor.  23 

doors,  containing  white  jars  and  glass  bottles,  hav- 
ing Latin  labels,  and  smelling  dreadfully  of  doctor's 
stuffs. 

"I  always  come  through  here,"  said  my  host, 
"  after  passing  the  town.  It  gives  the  olfactories  a 
new  sensation.  This  you  observe  is  the  place  where 
I  physic  the  people." 

"  Have  you  many  patients,  Doctor  ? "  I  inquired. 

"  Not  very  many ;  but,  considering  that  I  go 
sometimes  a  hundred  miles  or  so  to  see  the  suffer- 
ing sinners,  I  have  quite  enough  to  satisfy  me.  Not 
much  competition,  you  know.  But  come,  we  have 
some  lunch  waiting  for  us  in  the  next  room,  and 
Sophy  will  be  growing  impatient." 

A  lady,  eh  ? 

The  room  into  which  the  Doctor  ushered  me  was 
neatly  furnished.  On  the  walls  were  hung  some 
prints  and  paintings  of  fruits  and  animals  and  flow- 
ers, and  in  the  center  stood  a  small  round  table  cov- 
ered with  dishes  carefully  placed  on  a  snowy-  cloth. 

All  very  nice,  but  who's  Sophy  ? 

The  Doctor  tinkled  a  little  bell,  the  tones  of  which 
told  that  it  was  silver,  and  then,  all  radiant  with 
smiles  and  beaming  with  good-nature,  Sophy  en- 
tered. A  strange  apparition  ! 


24  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

"This  is  my  housekeeper,"  said  the  Doctor  in 
explanation,  "  speak  to  the  American,  Sophy." 

And  without  embarrassment  or  pausing  for  an 
instant  she  advanced  and  bade  me  welcome,  ad- 
dressing me  in  fair  English,  while  extending  at  the 
same  time  a  delicate  little  hand  which  peeped  out 
from  under  cuffs  of  eider-down. 

"I  am  glad,"  said  she,  "to  see  the  American.  I 
have  been  looking  through  the  window  at  him  ever 
since  he  left  the  ship." 

"  Now,  Sophy,"  said  the  Doctor,  "  let  us  see  what 
you  have  got  for  lunch." 

"  Oh,  I  haven't  anything  at  all,  Doctor  Molke," 
answered  Sophy,  "but  I  hope  the  American  will 
excuse  me  until  dinner,  when  I  have  some  nice 
trout  and  venison." 

"Pot-luck,  as  I  told  you,"  exclaimed  my  host. 
"  But  never  mind,  Sophy,  let's  have  it,  be  what  it 
may."  And  Sophy  tripped  lightly  out  of  the  room 
to  do  her  master's  bidding. 

"  A  right  good  girl  that,"  said  the  Doctor  when 
the  door  was  closed.  "  Takes  capital  care  of  me." 

Strange  Sophy.  A  pretty  face  of  dusky  hue,  and 
a  fine  figure  attired  in  native  costume,  neatly  orna- 
mented and  arranged  with  cultivated  taste.  Panta- 


The  Doctor.  25 

loons  of  mottled  seal-skin  and  of  silvery  luster,  ta- 
pered down  into  long  white  boots  which  inclosed 
the  neatest  of  ankles  and  daintiest  of  feet.  A  little 
jacket  of  Scotch  plaid,  with  a  collar  and  border  of 
fur,  covered  the  body  to  the  waist,  while  from  be- 
neath the  collar  peeped  up  a  pure  white  cambric 
handkerchief  covering  the  throat ;  and  heavy  masses 
of  glossy  black  hair  were  intertwined  with  ribbons 
of  gay  red.  Marvelous  Sophy  !  Dusky  daughter 
of  a  Danish  father  and  a  native  mother.  From  her 
mother  she  had  her  rich  brunette  complexion  and 
raven  hair  ;  from  her  father  Saxon  features  and 
light  blue  Saxon  eyes. 

If  the  housekeeper  attracted  my  attention,  so  did 
the  dishes  which  she  set  before  me.  Smoked  sal- 
mon of  exquisite  delicacy  ;  reindeer  sausages,  rein- 
deer tongues,  nicely  dried  and  thinly  sliced,  and  fine 
fresh  Danish  bread  made  up  a  style  of  "  pot-luck  " 
calculated  to  cause  a  hungry  man  from  the  high 
seas  and  sailors'  "  grub,"  to  wish  for  the  same  style 
of  luck  for  the  remainder  of  his  days.  But  when 
all  this  came  to  be  washed  down  with  the  contents 
of  sundry  bottles  with  which  Sophy  dotted  the  clean 
white  cloth,  the  luck  was  perfect,  and  there  was 
nothing  further  to  desire. 


26  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

"  Ah,  here  we  are,"  said  my  entertainer.  "  Sophy 
wishes  to  make  amends  for  the  dryness  of  her  fare. 
This  is  a  choice  Margaux,  and  I  can  recommend  it. 
But,  Sophy — here,  you  haven't  warmed  this  quite 
enough.  Ah,  my  dear  sir,  you  experience  the 
trouble  of  a  Greenland  life.  One  can  never  have 
his  wines  properly  tempered." 

One  cannot  have  his  wines  properly  tempered  ! 
And  this  is  the  trouble  of  a  Greenland  life  !  "Sure- 
ly," thought  I,  "  one  might  find  something  worse 
than  this." 

"  Here,"  picking  up  the  next  bottle,  "  we  have 
some  Johannisberg,  very  fine,  as  I  can  assure 
you ;  but  I  have  little  fancy  even  for  the  best  of 
these  Rhenish  wines.  Too  much  like  a  pretty 
woman  without  a  soul.  They  never  warm  the 
imagination.  There's  something  better  to  build  upon 
there,  close  beside  your  elbow.  Since  the  claret's 
forbidden  us  for  the  present,  I'll  drink  you  welcome 
in  that  rich  Madeira.  Why,  do  you  know,  sir," 
rattled  on  the  Doctor,  as  I  passed  the  bottle,  seem- 
ingly rejoiced  in  his  very  heart  at  having  some  one 
to  talk  to,  "  do  you  know,  sir,  that  I  have  kept  that 
by  me  here  these  ten  years  past  ?  My  good  old 
father  sent  it  to  me  as  a  mark  of  special  favor.  It 


The  Doctor.  27 

has  a  pedigree  as  long  as  one  of  Lockley's  cloth- 
yard  shafts.  But  the  pedigree  will  keep  ;  let's  prove 
the  bottle  ;  "  and  he  filled  up  two  dainty  French 
straw-stem  glasses,  and  pledged  me  in  good  old  Dan- 
ish style.  Then,  when  the  claret  came  back,  this 
time  all  rightly  tempered,  the  Doctor  filled  the 
glasses  and  hoped  that  when  I  left  the  place  the 
girls  would  pull  lustily  on  the  tow-ropes. 

Hunger  and  thirst  were  soon  appeased.  "  And 
now,"  said  the  Doctor,  when  this  was  done,  "  I  know 
you  are  dying  for  the  want  of  something  fresh  and 
green.  You  have  probably  tasted  nothing  that  grew 
out  of  dear  old  Mother  Earth  since  leaving  home  ;  " 
and  he  tinkled  his  little  silver  bell  again,  and  Sophy 
of  the  silver  seal-skin  pantaloons  and  dainty  snow- 
white  boots  tripped  softly  through  the  door. 

"  Sophy  haven't  you  a  surprise  for  the  American  ? " 

Sophy  smiled  knowingly  as  she  answered  "  Yes," 
while  she  retreated.  In  a  moment  she  came  back, 
carrying  a  little  silver  dish  with  a  little  pyramid  of 
green  upon  it.  Out  from  the  green  peeped  little 
round  red  globes — radishes,  as  I  lived  !  Round  red 
radishes!  Ten  round  red  radishes  ! 

"  What  !  radishes  in  Greenland  !  "  I  exclaimed, 
involuntarily. 


28  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

"  Yes,  and  raised  on  my  own  farm,  too  !  You 
shall  see  it  by  and  by."  The  Doctor  was  enjoying 
my  surprise,  and  Sophy  looked  on  with  undisguised 
satisfaction.  Meanwhile  I  lost  no  time  in  tumbling 
the  pyramid  to  pieces,  and  crunching  the  delicious 
bulbs.  They  disappeared  in  a  twinkling.  Their 
rich  and  luscious  juices  seemed  to  pour  at  once  into 
the  very  blood,  and  to  tingle  at  the  very  finger-tips. 
I  never  knew  before  the  full  enjoyment  of  the 
fresh  growth  of  the  soil.  After  so  long  a  de- 
privation (more  than  a  year) ,  it  was  indeed  a  strange, 
as  it  will  remain  a  lasting,  sensation.  Never,  to  my 
dying  day,  shall  I  forget  the  ten  round  red  radishes 
of  Greenland  ! 

"  You  see  that  I  was  right,"  exclaimed  my  host, 
after  the  vigorous  assault  was  ended.  "  And  now," 
continued  he,  addressing  Sophy,  "bring  the  other 
things." 

The  other  things  proved  to  be  a  plate  of  fine  let- 
tuce, a  bit  of  Stilton  cheese,  and  coffee,  in  transpa- 
rent little  china  cups,  and  sugar  in  a  silver  bowl,  and 
then  cigars — everything  of  the  best  and  purest — and 
as  we  passed  from  one  thing  to  another,  I  became 
persuaded  that  the  Arctic  Circle  was  a  myth,  that 
my  cruise  among  the  icebergs  was  a  dream,  and 


The  Doctor.  29 

that  Greenland  was  set  down  wrongly  on  the  maps. 
Long  before  this  I  had  been  convinced  that  Doctor 
Molke  was  a  most  mysterious  character,  and  wholly 
unaccountable. 

After  we  had  finished  this  sumptuous  lunch,  and 
chatted  for  a  while,  the  Doctor  surprised  me  again 
by  asking  if  I  would  like  a  game  of  billiards.  Bill- 
iards in  Greenland,  as  well  as  radishes  !  "  But 
first,"  said  he,  "let  us  try  this  sunny  Burgundy. 
Ah,  these  red  wines  are  the  only  truly  generous 
wines.  They  monopolize  all  the  sensuous  glories 
and  associations  of  the  fruit.  With  these  red  wines 
one  drinks  in  the  very  soul  and  sentiment  of  the 
lands  which  grow  the  grapes  that  breed  them." 

"  Even  if  drank  in  Greenland  !  " 

"Yes,  or  at  the  very  pole.  Geographical  lines 
may  confine  our  bodies,  but  nature  is  an  untamed 
wild  where  the  spirit  roams  at  will.  If  I  am  here 
hemmed  in  by  barren  hills,  and  live  in  a  desert 
waste,  yet,  as  one  of  your  sweetest  poets  has  put  it, 
my 

'  Fancy,  like  the  finger  of  a  clock, 
Runs  the  great  circuit,  and  is  still  at  home.' 

And  truly  I  believe  that  I  have  in  this  retreat  about 


30  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

as  much  enjoyment  of  life  as  they  who  taste  of  it 
more  freely ;  for,  while  I  can  here  feel  all  the 
world's  warm  pulsations,  I  am  freed  from  its  annoy- 
ances. If  the  sweet  is  less  sweet,  the  bitter  is  less 
bitter.  But — Well,  let's  have  the  billiards." 

My  host  now  led  the  way  into  the  billiard-room, 
which  was  tastefully  ornamented  with  everything 
needful  to  harmonize  with  a  handsome  table  stand- 
ing in  its  center,  upon  which  we  were  soon  knock- 
ing the  balls  about  in  a  very  lively  manner.  I  was 
much  surprised  at  the  skillfulness  of  his  play,  and 
expressed  myself  accordingly.  I  thought  it  some- 
thing singular  that  he  should  there  find  any  one  to 
keep  him  so  well  in  practice. 

"Ah,  my  dear  sir,"  he  replied,  "you  have  yet 
much  to  learn.  This  country  is  not  so  bad  as  you 
think  for.  Sophy,  native  born  Sophy,  is  my  antago- 
nist, and  she  beats  me  three  times  out  of  five." 
Wonderful  Sophy  ! 

The  game  finished,  my  host  next  led  the  way  into 
his  study — a  charming  retreat  as  ever  human  wit 
and  ingenuity  devised.  It  was  indeed  rather  a  par- 
lor than  a  study.  The  room  was  large,  and  was 
literally  filled  with  odd  bits  of  furniture,  elegant 
and  well  kept.  Heavy  crimson  curtains  were 


The  Doctor.  31 

draped  about  the  windows  ;  a  rich  crimson  carpet 
covered  the  floor,  and  there  were  lounges  and 
chairs  of  various  patterns  adapted  for  every  temper 
of  mind  and  mood  of  body,  all  of  the  same  pleasing 
color.  Odd  ttagtres,  hanging  and  standing,  and  a 
large  solid  walnut  case  were  all  well  filled  with 
books,  and  other  books  were  carefully  arranged  on  a 
table  in  the  center  of  the  room.  My  eye  quickly  de- 
tected the  works  of  various  English  and  American 
authors,  conspicuous  among  which  were  Shake- 
speare, Byron,  Scott,  Dickens,  Cooper,  and  Wash- 
ington Irving.  Sam  Slick  had  a  place  there,  and 
close  beside  him  was  the  renowned  Lemuel  Gulli- 
ver ;  and,  in  science,  there  were,  besides  many 
others,  Brewster,  Murchison,  Agassiz,  and  Lyell. 
The  books  all  showed  that  they  were  well  used,  and 
they  embraced  the  principal  classical  stores  of  the 
French  and  German  tongues,  besides  the  English 
and  his  own  native  Danish.  In  short,  the  collec- 
tion was  precisely  such  as  one  would  expect  to  find 
in  any  civilized  place  where  means  were  not  want- 
ing, the  disposition  to  read  a  habit  and  a  pleasure, 
and  the  books  themselves  boon  companions. 

A  charming  feature  of  the  room  was  the  air  of 
refreshing  n/gligt  with  which  sundry  robes  of  bear 


32  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

and  fox  skins  were  tossed  about  upon  the  chairs 
and  lounges  and  upon  the  floor,  while  the  blank 
spaces  of  the  walls  were  broken  by  numerous  pic- 
tures, some  of  them  apparently  family  relics,  and 
on  little  brackets  were  various  souvenirs  of  art  and 
travel. 

"I  call  this  my  study,"  said  the  Doctor,  "but  in 
truth  there  is  the  real  shop,"  and  he  led  me  into  a 
little  room  adjoining,  in  which  there  was  but  one 
window,  one  table,  one  chair,  no  shelves,  a  great 
number  of  books  lying  about  in  every  direction, 
and  great  quantities  of  paper.  On  the  wall  were 
hung  about  two  dozen  pipes  of  various  shapes  and 
sizes,  and  a  fine  assortment  of  guns  and  rifles,  and 
all  the  paraphernalia  of  a  practiced  sportsman.  It 
was  easy  to  see  that  there  was  at  least  one  place 
where  the  native-born  Sophy  did  not  come. 

The  chamber  of  this  singular  Greenland  recluse 
into  which  he  next  conducted  me,  was  in  keeping 
with  his  study.  The  walls  were  painted  light 
blue,  a  blue  carpet  adorned  the  floor,  blue  curtains 
softened  the  light  which  stole  through  the  windows 
from  the  south,  and  blue  hanging  cast  a  pleasant 

•  • 

hue  over  a  snowy  pillow.  Although  small,  there 
was  indeed  nothing  wanting,  not  even  a  well-ar- 


The  Doctor.  33 

ranged  bath-room — nothing  that  the  most  fastidious 
taste  could  covet  or  desire. 

"  And  now,"  said  my  entertainer,  when  we  had  got 
back  into  the  study,  "  does  this  present  attractions 
sufficient  to  tempt  you  from  your  narrow  bunk  on 
shipboard  ?  You  are  most  heartily  welcome  to  that 
blue  den  which  you  admire  so  much,  and  which  I 
am  heartily  sick  of,  while  I  can  make  for  myself  a 
capital  shake-down  here,  or  vice  versa.  If  neither 
of  these  will  suit  you,  then  cast  your  eyes  out  of  the 
window  and  you  will  observe  something  out  of 
which  to  fashion  a  more  truly  Arctic  lodging." 

I  stepped  to  the  window,  and  there,  sure  enough, 
piled  up  beneath  it  and  against  the  house  was  a 
bank  of  snow,  which  the  summer's  sun  had  not  yet 
dissolved,  and  as  I  saw  this,  and  then  looked  beyond 
it  over  the  wretched  little  village,  and  the  desolate 
waste  of  rocks  on  which  it  stood,  and  then  on  up 
the  craggy  steeps  to  the  great  white-topped  mount- 
ains, I  could  but  wonder  what  strange  event  of 
fate  or  fortune  had  sent  this  luxury-loving  man, 
with  books  only  for  companions,  into  such  a  howl- 
ing wilderness."  Was  it  his  own  fancy,  or  was  it 
some  cruel  necessity  ?  In  truth,  the  surprise  was  so 

great  that  I  found  myself  suddenly  turning  from  the 
2* 


34  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

scene  outside  to  that  within,  not  indeed  without  an 
impression  that  the  whole  thing  might  have  van- 
ished in  the  interval  as  the  palace  of  Aladdin  in  the 
Arabian  tale. 

My  host  was  watching  me  attentively,  no  doubt 
reading  my  thoughts,  for,  as  I  turned  round,  he 
asked  if  I  liked  the  contrast.  To  be  quite  candid,  I 
was  forced  to  own  myself  greatly  wondering  that 
a  "  den "  so  well  fitted  for  the  latitude  of  Paris, 
should  be  stumbled  upon  away  up  here  so  near  the 
pole. 

"  Hardly  in  keeping  with  the  '  eternal  fitness  of 
things,'  eh,  as  Square  would  say  ?  " 

"  Precisely  so." 

"  You  think  then  because  a  fellow  chooses  to  live 
in  barbarous  Greenland,  he  must  needs  turn  barba- 
rian." 

"  Not  exactly  that,  but  we  are  in  the  habit  of 
associating  the  appreciation  of  comfort  and  luxury, 
or  what  we  call  the  aesthetic  side  of  life,  with  the 
desire  for  social  intercourse,  certainly  not  with  ban- 
ishment like  this." 

"  Then  you  would  be  inclined  to"  think  there  is 
something  unnatural,  in  short  mysterious,  in  my  be- 
ing here,  tastes,  fancies,  inclinations,  and  all." 


The  Doctor.  35 

"  I  confess  it  would  strike  me  so  if  I  took  the 
liberty  to  speculate  upon  it." 

"  Very  far  from  the  truth,  I  do  assure  you.  I  am 
not  obliged  to  be  here  any  more  than  you  are.  I 
came  from  pure  choice,  and  am  at  liberty  to  return 
when  I  please,  like  yourself,  only  with  this  "difference, 
that  while  I  must  remain  a  year,  you  can  give  your 
little  schooner  wings  at  any  moment,  and  flee  home 
just  when  it  suits  you.  In  truth,  I  do  go  home  with 
the  ship  to  Copenhagen  once  in  three  or  four  years, 
and  spend  a  winter  there,  living  the  while  in  a  den 
much  like  what  you  here  see,  but  I  am  always  glad 
enough  to  get  back  again.  The  salary  which  I  re- 
ceive from  the  government  does  not  support  me  as  I 
live,  so  you  see  that  is  not  a  motive.  But  I  am  per- 
fectly independent,  have  capital  health,  lots  of  ad- 
venture, hardship  enough  (for  you  must  know  that 
if  I  do  sleep  under  a  sky-blue  canopy,  I  am  es- 
teemed one  of  the  most  hardy  men  in  all  Green- 
land) to  satisfy  the  most  insatiate  appetite  and  per- 
verse disposition." 

"  Sufficient  reason,  I  should  say,  for  a  year  or  so, 
but  hardly,  one  would  think,  for  a  lifetime." 

"Why  <not?" 

"Because  the   novelty    of    adventure   wears   off 


36  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

in  a  little  time.  Good  health  never  yields  us  satis- 
faction, for  we  do  not  give  it  thought  until  we  lose 
it.  So  that  can  never  be  an  impelling  motive,  and 
as  for  independence,  what  is  that  when  one  can 
never  be  freed  from  himself  ?  However,  I  am  only 
curious,  not  critical." 

"But,  my  dear  sir,  you  forget  these  shelves. 
Those  books  are  my  friends.  Of  them  I  never  grow 
weary ;  they  never  grow  weary  of  me.  We  under- 
stand each  other  perfectly.  They  talk  to  me  when 
.  I  would  listen,  they  sing  to  me  when  I  would  be 
charmed,  they  play  for  me  when  I  would  be  amused. 
Ah  !  sir,  this  country  is  great,  as  all  countries  are 
great,  each  in  its  way  ;  and  this  is  a  great  country 
to  read  books  in.  Upon  my  word,  I  wonder  every- 
body don't  fill  ships  with  books  and  come  up  here, 
burn  the  ships  as  did  the  great  Spaniard,  and  each 
spend  the  remainder  of  his  days  in  devouring  his 
shipload  of  books.  In  this  fancy  of  mine  you  may 
perhaps  imagine  that  you  find  something  quite 
peculiar,  but  I  assure  you  it  is  nothing  of  the  kind. 
Each  one  to  his  taste,  you  know,  and,  like  every  body 
else,  of  course  I  think  mine  the  best.  Another  of 
your  poets,  Henry  Taylor  I  think,  must  Have  had 
some  notion  of  this  sort  in  his  mind  when  he  wrote, 


The  Doctor.  37 

'  We  figure  to  ourselves 
The  thing  we  like,  and  then  we  build  it  up 
As  chance  will  have  it,  on  the  rock  or  sand  ; ' 

and  so  you  see  that  I  have  built  in  fact  as  well  as 
fancy  on  the  rock." 

I  could  not  help  being  pleased  with  this  novel 
way  in  which  my  host  viewed  his  situation  and  ex- 
hibited his  desires  ;  and  I  amused  him  greatly  when 
I  told  him  so.  Then  I  said,  "  Truly  a  pretty  picture 
you  have  drawn  of  the  country,  and  of  the  wonder- 
ful uses  to  which  it  may  be  put ;  but  let  me  ask  you, 
how  often  do  books  reach  you  ?  " 

"  Once  a  year,  when  the  Danish  ship  comes  out  to 
bring  us  bread,  sugar,  coffee,  coal,  and  such  like 
things,  and  to  take  home  the  few  trifles,  in  the 
shape  of  furs,  oil,  and  fish,  which  the  natives  have 
gathered  in  the  interval." 

"  Books  to  the  contrary,  I  should  say  the  ship 
would  not  return  more  than  once  without  me,  were 
I  in  your  situation." 

"So  you  would  think  me  a  sensible  fellow,  no 
doubt,  if  I  would  pick  up  this  box  and  carry  it  off 
to  Paris  or  Copenhagen,  or  may  be  to  New 
York?" 

"  That's  exactly  what  I  was  thinking,  or  rather,  it 


38  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

would  certainly  have  appeared  to  me  more  reasona- 
ble if  you  had  built  it  there  in  the  first  instance." 

"  Quite  the  contrary,  I  do  assure  you  ;  quite  the 
contrary.  Indeed,  I  can  prove  to  your  entire  satis- 
faction that  I  am  a  very  sensible  man  ;  but  wait 
until  I  have  shown  you  all  my  possessions.  Will  you 
look  at  my  farm  ? " 

Farm !  well  this  was,  after  all,  exhibiting  some 
claims  of  the  country  to  the  consideration  of  a  civil- 
ized man.  A  farm  in  Greenland  was  something  I 
was  hardly  prepared  for. 

The  Doctor  now  led  the  way  to  the  rear  of  the 
house,  into  an  inclosure  about  eighty  feet  square, 
surrounded  by  a  high  board  fence. 

"  This  is  my  farm,"  said  the  Doctor. 

"  Where  ? " 

"  Here,  look  ;  it  isn't  a  large  one."  And  he  pointed 
to  a  patch  of  earth  about  thirty  feet  long  by  four 
wide,  inclosed  with  boards  and  covered  over  with 
glass.  Under  the  glass  were  growing  lettuce,  radishes, 
and  pepper-grass,  all  looking  as  bright  and  fresh  and 
green  and  well  contented  as  if  they,  like  the  man 
for  whose  benefit  they  grew,  cared  little  where  they 
sprouted,  so  they  only  grew.  The  ten  round  red 
radishes  of  the  recent  luncheon  were  accounted  for. 


Tlic  Doctor.  39 

"  So  you  see,"  exclaimed  the  Doctor,  "  something 
besides  a  lover  of  books  can  take  root  in  this  coun- 
try. Are  you  not  growing  reconciled  to  it  ?  To  be 
sure,  they  are  fed  on  pap  from  home,  but  so  does  the 
farmer  who  cultivates  them  get  his  books  from  the 
same  quarter." 

"  How  is  that  ?  Do  you  mean  to  say  you  bring 
the  earth  they  grow  in  from  home  ? " 

"Even  so.  This  is  good,  rich  Jutland  earth, 
brought  in  barrels  by  ship  from  Copenhagen." 

An  imported  farm  !     One  more  novelty. 

"  Now  you  shall  see  my  barn,"  and  we  passed 
over  to  a  little,  tightly-made  building  in  the  oppo- 
site corner,  where  the  first  sound  that  greeted  my 
ears  was  the  bleating  of  goats  and  the  grunting  of 
pigs,  and  as  the  door  was  opened  I  heard  the 
cackling  and  flutter  of  chickens.  Twenty  chickens, 
two  pigs,  and  three  goats. 

"All  brought  from  Copenhagen  with  the  farm," 
and  the  Doctor  began  to  talk  to  them  in  a  very 
familiar  manner  in  the  Danish  tongue.  They  all 
recognized  the  kindly  voice  of  their  master,  and 
flocked  around  him  to  be  fed,  and  while  this  was 
being  done  I  observed  that  he  provided  for  the 
safety  of  his  pets  by  securing  in  the  center  of  their 


4O  Pictures  of  Arctic   Travel. 

house  a  large  stove,  which  was  now  cold,  but  which 
in  the  winter  must  give  the  animals  abundant  heat. 
And  so  the  Doctor,  besides  his  round  red  radishes 
and  his  fresh  butter,  had  pork  and  milk  and  eggs  of 
native  growth  ! 

The  next  object  of  interest  to  attract  attention 
was  the  Doctor's  smoke-house  then  in  full  operation. 
This  was  simply  a  large  hogshead,  one  head  pierced 
with  holes  and  the  other  head  knocked  out.  The 
end  without  a  head  was  set  upon  a  circle  of  loose 
stones,  which  supported  it  half  a  foot  above  the 
ground,  and  inside  of  this  circle  a  great  volume  of 
smoke  was  being  generated,  and  which  came  puffing 
out  through  the  holes  in  the  head  above.  Inside  of 
this  simple  contrivance  were  suspended  a  number  of 
fine  salmon,  the  delicate  flesh  of  which  was  being 
dried  by  the  heat  and  penetrated  by  the  sweet  aroma 
of  the  smoke.  The  smoke  arose  from  a  smoulder- 
ing fire  of  the  leaves  and  branches  of  the  andromeda 
{Andromeda  tetragona)  the  heather  of  Greenland — a 
trailing  plant  with  a  pretty  purple  blossom,  which 
grows  in  sheltered  places  in  great  abundance.  Be- 
sides moss,  this  is  the  only  vegetable  production  of 
North  Greenland  that  will  burn,  and  it  is  sometimes 
used  by  the  natives  for  fuel  after  it  is  dried  by  the 


The  Doctor.  41 

sun,  for  which  purpose  it  is  torn  up  and  spread  upon 
the  rocks  in  the  summer  time.  The  perfume  of  the 
smoke  is  really  delicious,  which  accounts  for  the 
excellent  flavor  of  the  salmon  which  the  Doctor  had 
given  me  for  lunch.  Nothing  of  its  kind  could  pos- 
sibly exceed  the  delicacy  of  the  fish  thus  pre- 
pared. 

The  inspection  of  the  Doctor's  garden,  or  "  farm  " 
as  he  facetiously  called  it,  occupied  us  during  the 
remainder  of  the  afternoon,  and  so  novel  was  every- 
thing to  me,  from  the  Doctor  down  to  his  vegetables 
and  perfumed  fish,  that  the  hours  passed  away  un- 
noticed, and  I  was  quite  astonished  when  Sophy 
came  to  announce  dinner. 

We  were  soon  seated  at  the  table  where  we  had 
been  before,  and  Sophy  served  the  meal.  Her  soup 
was  excellent  ;  the  trout,  from  a  neighboring  moun- 
tain stream,  were  of  fine  quality  and  well  cooked  ; 
the  haunch  was  done  to  a  turn  ;  the  wines  were  this 
time  rightly  tempered  ;  the  champagne  needed  not 
to  be  iced  ;  more  of  the  round  red  radishes  appeared 
in  season  ;  and  then  followed  lettuce,  and  cheese,  and 
coffee,  and  then  we  found  ourselves  at  another  game 
of  billiards,  and  at  length  were  settled  for  the  even- 
ing in  the  Doctor's  study,  one  on  either  side  of  a 


42  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

table,  on  which  stood  all  the  ingredients  of  an  arrack 
punch,  and  in  their  midst  a  bundle  of  cigars. 

Our  conversation,  naturally  enough,  ran  upon  the 
affairs  of  the  big  world  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Arctic  Circle,  upon  its  politics,  and  literature,  and 
science,  and  art,  passing  lightly  from  one  to  the 
other,  lingering  now  and  then  over  some  book  which 
we  had  mutually  fancied.  I  found  my  companion 
perfectly  posted  up  to  within  a  year,  and  inquired 
how  he  managed  things  so  well. 

"Ah  !  you  must  know,"  answered  he,  "that  is  a 
clever  little  illusion  of  mine.  I'm  always  precisely 
one  year  behind  the  rest  of  the  world.  The  Danish 
ship  brings  me  a  file  of  papers  for  the  past  twelve 
months,  the  principal  reviews  and  periodicals,  the 
latest  maps,  such  books  as  I  have  sent  for  during 
the  year,  and  besides  this  the  bookseller  and  my  other 
home  friends  make  me  up  an  assortment  of  what 
they  think  will  please  me.  Now,  you  see,  in  devour- 
ing this  I  pursue  an  absolute  method.  The  books, 
of  course,  I  take  up  as  the  fancy  pleases  me,  but  the 
reviews,  periodicals,  and  newspapers,  I  turn  over  to 
Sophy,  and  the  faithful  creature  places  on  my  break- 
fast table,  every  morning,  exactly  what  was  pub- 
lished that  day  one  year  before.  Clever,  isn't  it  ? 


The  Doctor.  43 

You  see  I  get  every  day  the  news,  and  go  through 
the  drama  of  the  year  with  perhaps  quite  as  much 
satisfaction  as  they  who  live  the  passing  day  in  the 
midst  of  the  occurring  events.  Each  day's  paper 
opens  a  new  act  in  the  play,  and  what  matters  it 
that  news  is  one  year  old  ?  It  is  none  the  less  news 
to  me,  and,  besides,  are  not  Gibbon,  Shakespeare, 
and  Mother  Goose  still  more  ancient  ? " 

I  could  but  smile  at  this  ingenious  device,  and  the 
Doctor,  seeing  plainly  that  I  was  deeply  interested 
in  his  novel  mode  of  life,  loosened  a  tongue,  which, 
in  truth,  needed  little  encouragement,  and  rattled 
away  over  the  rough  and  smooth  of  his  Greenland 
experiences,  with  an  enjoyment  on  his  part  perhaps 
scarcely  less  than  mine,  for  it  was  easy  to  see  that 
his  love  of  wild  adventure  kept  pace  with  his  love 
of  comfort,  and  that  he  heartily  enjoyed  the  expos- 
ures of  his  career,  and  the  reputation  which  his 
hardihood  had  acquired  for  him.  I  perceived,  too, 
that  he  possessed  a  warm  and  vivid  imagination,  and 
that,  clothing  everything  he  saw  and  everything  he 
did  with  a  fitting  sentiment  of  strength  or  beauty,  he 
had  blended  wild  nature  and  his  own  strange  life  into 
a  romantic  scheme,  which  completely  filled  his  fancy 
leaving,  apparently  at  least,  nothing  unsupplied; 


44  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

and  this  he  enjoyed  to  the  very  bottom  of  his 
soul. 

The  hours  glided  swiftly  away,  as  we  sat  sipping 
our  punch  and  smoking  our  cigars,  in  that  quaint 
study  of  the  Doctor's,  chatting  of  this  and  of  that, 
and  a  novel  feature  of  the  evening  was  that,  as  we 
talked  on  and  on,  the  light  grew  not  dim  with  the 
passing  hours ;  for  when  the  hand  of  a  Danish 
clock  which  ticked  above  the  mantel  told  nine,  and 
then  ten,  and  then  eleven  o'clock,  it  was  still  broad 
day,  and  at  length,  in  the  full  blaze  of  sunshine,  the 
clock  rang  out  the  witching  hour  of  midnight.  The 
.sun,  low  down  upon  the  northern  horizon,  poured  his 
bright  rays  over  the  hills  and  sea,  throwing  the  dark 
shadow  of  the  mountains  upon  the  town,  but  illu- 
minating everything  to  right  and  left  with  that  soft 
and  pleasant  light,  which  we  so  often  see  at  home 
in  the  early  morning  of  the  spring. 

After  the  clock  had  struck  twelve,  we  threw  our 
fur  cloaks  over  our  shoulders,  and  strolled  out  into 
this  strange  midnight.  Passing  through  the  town,  I 
remarked  the  quiet  which  everywhere  prevailed,  and 
how  all  nature  seemed  to  have  caught  the  inspiration 
of  the  hour.  Not  a  soul  was  stirring  abroad.  The 
dogs  crouching  in  clusters  were  all  asleep,  and  it 


The  Doctor.  45 

seemed  as  if  my  little  vessel  lay  under  the  shadows 
of  the  cliffs  with  a  consciousness  that  midnight  is  a 
solemn  thing,  even  in  the  sunshine.  And  never  did 
the  sun  shine  more  brightly,  and  never  did  a  more 
brilliantly  illuminated  landscape  give  evidence  of 
day.  But  wearied  nature  had  sought  repose,  even 
though  no  sable  cloud  with  silver  lining  turned  upon 
the  world  its  darkening  shadow,  for  the  hour  of  rest 
was  come. 

Walking  on  over  the  rough  rocks,  we  came  at 
length  upon  the  sea,  and  I  noticed  that  the  very 
birds,  which  were  wont  to  paddle  about  in  great 
flocks  upon  the  waters,  or  fly  gayly  through  the  air, 
had  crawled  upon  the  shore,  and,  tucking  their 
heads  beneath  their  wings,  had  gone  to  sleep.  Even 
the  little  flowers  and  blades  of  grass  seemed  to 
droop,  as  if  wearied  with  the  long  hours  of  the  day ; 
and,  defying  the  restless  sun  to  rob  them  of  their 
natural  repose,  had  fallen  to  sleep  with  the  beasts 
and  birds.  The  very  sea  itself  appeared  to  have 
caught  the  infection  of  the  hour — dissolving  in  its 
blue  depths  the  golden  clouds  of  day. 

The  night  was  far  from  being  cold,  and  selecting 
the  most  tempting  and  sunny  spot,  we  sat  down 
upon  a  rock  close  beside  the  sea,  watching  the  gen- 


46  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

tie  wavelets  playing  on  the  sand,  and  the  changing 
light  as  the  sun  rolled  on,  glistening  upon  the  hills 
and  upon  the  icebergs  which,  in  countless  numbers, 
lay  upon  the  watery  plain  before  us,  like  great  mon- 
oliths of  Parian  marble  waiting  as  if  but  for  the 
sculptor's  chisel  to  stand  forth  in  fluted  pillar  and 
solid  architrave — floating  Parthenons  and  Pantheons 
and  Temples  of  the  Sun. 

The  scene  was  favorable  to  the  conversation, 
which  had  been  broken  off  when  we  left  the  study, 
and  the  Doctor  came  back  to  it  of  his  own  accord. 
I  was  much  absorbed  with  the  grandeur  of  this  mid- 
night scene,  and  had  remained  for  some  time  quiet. 
My  companion,  breaking  in  abruptly,  said,  "  I  think 
I  promised  to  prove  to  you  that  I  am  the  most  sen- 
sible fellow  alive.  Now  let  me  tell  you,  to  begin 
with,  that  I  would  not  exchange  this  view  for  any 
other  I  have  ever  seen.  It  is  one  of  which  I  am 
very  fond,  for,  at  this  hour,  the  repose  which  you 
here  see  is  frequently  repeated  ;  and,  to  compare 
big  things  with  little,  it  might  be  likened  to  some 
huge  lion  sleeping  over  his  prey,  which  he  is  not  yet 
prepared  to  eat — quick  to  catch  the  first  sound  of 
movement.  There  is  something  truly  terrible  in  this 
untamed  nature.  Man's  struggle  here  gives  him 


The  Doctor.  47 

something  to  rejoice  in,  and  I  would  not  barter  it  for 
the  effeminate  life  to  which  I  should  be  destined  at 
home,  on  any  account  whatever.  Perhaps,  if  I  should 
there  be  compelled  absolutely  to  earn  my  daily  bread, 
the  case  might  be  different,  for  enforced  occupation 
is  quite  too  sober  an  affair  to  give  time  for  much 
reflection.  '  But  I  should,  most  likely,  lead  an  idle 
sort  of  existence  there,  and  should  simply  live  with- 
out, so  far  as  I  can  see,  a  motive.  I  should  encoun- 
ter few  perils,  have  few  sorrows,  fewer  disappoint- 
ments, and  want  for  nothing — nothing  indeed  but 
temptation  to  exert  myself,  or  prove  my  own  man-" 
hood  in  its  strength,  or  enjoy  the  luxury  of  risking 
the  precious  breath  of  life,  which  is  so  little  worth, 
and  which  is  so  easily  knocked  away.  You  have 
seen  one  side  of  me — how  I  live.  Well,  I  enjoy 
life,  and  make  the  most  of  it  after  my  own  fashion, 
as  everybody  should  do.  If  it  is  a  luxurious  fash- 
ion, as  you  are  pleased  to  think,  it  but  gives  me  a 
keener  relish  for  the  opposite  ;  and,  that  it  does  not 
unfit  me  for  encountering  the  hardships  of  the  field, 
is  proved  by  the  reputation  for  endurance  which  I 
have  among  the  natives.  If  I  sleep  between  well- 
aired  sheets  one  night,  I  can  coil  myself  up  among 
my  dogs  on  the  ice-fields  the  next,  and  sleep  there 


48  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

as  well.  I  care  not  if  it's  as  cold  as  the  frigid  cir- 
cle that  Dante  tells  of  so  satisfactorily.  If  I  have  a 
penchant  for  Burgundy,  and  like  to  drink  it  out  of 
French  glass,  I  can  drink  train-oil  out  of  a  tin  cup 
when  I  am  cold  and  hungry,  and  never  murmur.  I 
like  well-fitting  clothes,  but  rough  furs  suit  me  just 
as  well — that  is,  in  season.  Why,  it  would  make  you 
fairly  laugh  to  see  these  people  here,  countrymen  of 
mine,  with  whom  I  sometimes  travel,  who  never 
tasted  Burgundy  in  all  their  lives,  and  would  rather 
have  one  keg  of  Danish  corn  brandy  than  a  whole 
tun  of  it,  and  who  never  took  their  frugal  fare  off 
anything  more  tempting  than  tin.  Do  you  think 
that  these  people  can,  under  any  circumstances,  be 
induced  to  strengthen  their  bodies  with  eating  blub- 
ber, as  I  often  do  when  traveling  in  the  cold  ?  Not 
a  bit  of  it  !  Do  you  think  they  can  be  persuaded  to 
sleep  outside  of  their  own  wretched  lodgings,  with- 
out groaning  and  everlastingly  desiring  to  get  back 
again  ?  Not  they  !  " 

When  the  Doctor  had  finished  this  half  soliloquy, 
I  could  not  help  asking  what  had  impelled  him  to 
the  life  of  solitude  and  exposure  of  which  he  had 
clearly  grown  so  fond. 

"  The  motives  are  various,"  he  answered,  "  but 


The  Doctor.  49 

before  we  say  anything  under  that  head,  let  me  re- 
vert to  a  word  which  you  have  just  let  fall,  and 
which  you  have,  perhaps,  not  duly  considered  the 
value  of." 

I  asked  him  what  it  was. 

"  Solitude." 

"But,  surely,"  I  replied,  "the  word  can  hardly 
fail  to  suit  a  description  of  this  place." 

The  Doctor  shrugged  his  shoulders  while  play- 
fully answering,  "  Evidently  all  my  talk  about 
books,  and  the  pleasure  I  have  in  them,  has  been 
quite  thrown  away,  and  my  sweetness  has  been 
'  wasted  on  the  desert  air.'  Perhaps  you  may  have 
seen  upon  my  shelves  a  rather  fine  edition  of  Lord 
Byron.  Of  all  the  poets  he  is  my  favorite,  when 
describing  wild  nature.  Why,  what  do  you  think 
would  have  been  his  handling  of  this  grand  mid- 
night scene — these  glorious  cliffs,  these  snow-clad 
mountains,  these  glittering  icebergs,  glaciers,  mid- 
night sun — he  who  could  behold  the  comparatively 
insignificant  ice  streams  of  the  Alps,  and  call  them 
'palaces  of  nature,'  where  eternity  sat  throned  in 
'  icy  halls  of  cold  sublimity,'  and  write  so  grandly 
about  their  expanding,  yet  appalling  the  human 
spirit,  and  how  insignificant  man  stands  forth  in 


5<D  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

contrast  with  nature  in  her  rugged  grandeur  ?  Why, 
sir,  what  Byron  saw  was  as  nothing  compared  with 
this,  and  yet  you  call  this  solitude.  Now  let  me 
answer  you  in  this  with  a  quotation  from  my  favor- 
ite, which  everybody,  no  doubt,  who  reads  your 
splendid  language,  has  by  heart — that  is  to  say,  if 
I  am  not  tiring  your  patience." 

"  By  no  means,"  I  answered.  "  You  cannot 
please  me  better  than  by  praising  this  great  poet, 
or  by  quoting  from  him." 

"  That  being  the  case,  then  here  are  the  lines  I 
want  to  use — 

'  To  sit  on  rocks,  to  muse  o'er  flood  and  fell, 
To  slowly  trace  the  forest's  shady  scene, 
Where  things  that  own  not  man's  dominion  dwell, 
And  mortal  foot  hath  ne'er,  or  rarely,  been  ; 
To  climb  the  trackless  mountain  all  unseen  ; 
With  the  wild  flock  that  never  heeds  a  fold  ; 
Alone  o'er  steeps  and  foaming  falls  to  lean  ; 
This  is  not  solitude  ;  'tis  but  to  hold 
Converse  with  nature's  charms,  and  see  her  stores  unroll'd.' 

"  To  be  sure  there  is  here  no  'forest's  shady  scene,' 
but  I  have  oftentimes,  in  the  winter  moonlight,  come 
to  this  same  spot,  and,  looking  out  over  the  desolate, 


The  Doctor.  51 

frozen  sea,  have,  in  the  dark  trailing  shadow  of  a 
high  ridge  of  hummock  ice  and  icebergs,  imagined 
that  I  was  looking  out  upon  a  great  woodland,  such 
as  I  have  many  a  time  seen  in  winter  time  else- 
where. But  if  the  forest  is  not  here,  all  the  rest  of 
it  most  surely  is ;  but  the  reverse  of  the  picture 
quite  as  surely,  is  not.  And  now  to  wind  up  all  this 
Byronic  sentiment,  let  me  just  say,  in  the  same 
Spenserian  meter  as  before,  and  from  the  same 
excellent  fountain  head  of  poetry, 

'  I  live  not  in  myself,  but  I  become 
Portion  of  that  around  me  ;  and  to  me, 
High  mountains  are  a  feeling,  but  the  hum 
Of  human  cities  torture.' 

"  But  to  change  the  subject,"  continued  my  host 
in  a  less  grave  manner,  "  and  answer  your  question 
more  fairly, — you  see  I  do  a  good  deal  of  exploring, 
have  reached  many  of  the  glaciers,  have  dabbled  in 
natural  history,  meteorology,  magnetism,  and  all  that 
sort  of  thing,  besides  making  many  photographs  and 
geographical  surveys,  and  have  sent  home  to  various 
societies  and  museums  many  curiosities  and  much 
information.  My  name,  as  you  know,  stands  well 


52  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

enough  among  the  dons  of  science.  But,  apart  from 
this,  my  duties  require  me  to  travel  about  at  all 
times  and  during  all  seasons.  You  must  know  that 
everybody  in  this  country  lives  upon  the  coast,  and, 
therefore,  the  settlements  are  reached  only  by  the 
sea.  In  the  winter  I  travel  over  the  ice  with  my 
dog-sledge,  and,  in  the  summer,  when  the  ice  has 
broken  up,  I  go  from  place  to  place  in  that  little 
yacht  which  you  saw  lying  in  the  harbor.  Some- 
times I  go  from  choice,  stopping  at  the  villages  and 
exhibiting  my  professional  abilities  upon  Dane  or 
native,  as  the  case  may  be.  Often  I  am  sent  for. 
The  Greenlanders  don't  like  to  die  any  better  than 
other  people  ;  and  they  all  have  an  impression  that 
if  Dr.  Molke  only  looks  upon  them  they  are  safe. 
So  if  anybody  gets  but  an  ache  of  any  sort,  away 
goes  a  courier  for  the  Doctor.  Perhaps  it  is  in  sum- 
mer, and  the  distance  may  be  a  hundred  miles  or 
more.  No  matter,  he  gets  into  his  kayak  and  pad- 
dles through  all  sorts  of  weather ;  and,  at  the  rate 
of  seven  knots  the  hour,  comes  for  me.  Glad  of  the 
excuse  for  a  change,  to  say  nothing  (and  the  less 
perhaps  any  of  us  say  on  that  score  the  better)  of 
the  claims  of  humanity,  I  send  Sophy  after  Adam 
(a  converted  native)  and  directly  along  comes  Adam 


The  Doctor.  53 

with  his  son  Carl ;  and  my  medicine  and  instrument 
cases,  my  gun  and  rifle,  and  a  plentiful  supply  of 
ammunition,  a  tent  and  some  fur  bedding,  a  lamp 
and  other  camp  fixtures,  and  a  little  simple  food,  are 
put  into  the  boat,  and  off  we  go.  Perhaps  a  gale 
springs  up  and  we  are  forced  to  make  a  harbor  in 
some  little  island,  or  perhaps  it  falls  calm  and  we 
crawl  into  one  under  oars.  It  is  sure  to  be  alive 
with  ducks  and  geese  and  snipe.  The  shooting  is 
superb.  Happen  what  may,  come  storm  or  calm  or 
fine  weather,  though  often  wet  and  cold,  and  fre- 
quently in  danger,  yet  I  have  a  good  time  of  it.  I 
may  be  back  in  a  day,  two  days,  a  week,  or  I  may 
be  gone  a  month.  Then  the  winter  comes,  and 
I  have  again  to  answer  another  summons.  The 
same  "  traps "  are  put  on  the  sledge,  to  which  are 
harnessed  the  twelve  finest  dogs  in  the  village — my 
own  team — and  at  the  wildest  pace  at  which  this 
wolfish  herd  can  rush  along,  Adam  guides  me  to  my 
destination.  Perhaps  it  may  be  early  in  the  winter 
and  the  ice  in  places  thin.  We  very  likely  break 
through'  and  get  wet  and  are  in  danger  of  freezing. 
Perhaps  we  reach  a  crack  which  we  cannot  pass, 
and  have  to  halt,  and,  possibly  in  a  hut  of  snow,  wait 
until  the  frost  builds  a  bridge  for  us  to  pass.  This 


54  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

is  the  wildest  and  most  dangerous  of  my  experi- 
ences— this  dog-sledging  it  from  place  to  place  in 
the  early  or  late  winter ;  and  I  have  many  wild  ad- 
ventures. In  the  middle  of  the  winter,  when  it  is 
dark  pretty  much  all  the  time,  and  the  snow  is  hard 
and  crisp,  and  the  clear  cold  bracing  air  makes  the 
blood  run  freely  through  the  veins,  is  the  best 
time  for  traveling ;  for  then  we  may  start  a  bear 
and  be  pretty  sure  of  catching  him  before  he  gets 
on  rotten  ice  or  across  a  crack,  defying  us  in  the 
pursuit." 

By  this  time  the  sun  had  begun  to  climb  above 
the  hills,  and  the  shadow  of  the  cliffs  had  passed 
over  the  town,  so  we  strolled  back  to  the  Doctor's  • 
house.  The  Doctor  insisting  that  I  should  not 
sleep  on  board,  we  returned  to  the  study,  where  I 
was  soon  wrapt  in  a  sound  sleep  on  the  Doctor's 
"  shake-down,"  from  which  I  never  once  awoke 
until  there  came  a  loud  tapping  on  the  door. 

"  Who's  there  ? " 

"  Sophy." 

"  What's  Sophy  want  ? " 

"  Breakfast !  " 

Breakfast  indeed  !     It  was  hard  to  believe  that  I 
was  to  come  back  to  the  experiences  of  h'fe  under 


The  Doctor.  55 

such  a  summons,  for  I  had  dreamed  that  I  was  on  a 
visit  to  the  Man  in  the  Moon,  and  was  enjoying  a 
genuine  surprise  at  finding  him  happy  and  well  con- 
tented, seated  in  the  center  of  an  extinct  volcano, 
with  all  the  riches  of  the  great  satellite  gathered 
round  him,  hanging  in  tempting  clusters  on  its 
horns. 

But  my  eyes  at  length  were  opened  wide  enough 
to  see  near  by  the  very  terrestrial  ruins  of  our  even- 
ing's pastime ;  and,  if  these  had  left  any  doubt 
upon  my  mind  as  to  the  reality  of  my  present  situa- 
tion, these  doubts  would  certainly  have  been  re- 
moved by  the  cheerful  voice  of  the  Doctor  ;  for  a 
loud  "  Good  morning,"  came  from  out  the  painted 
chamber,  and  from  beneath  the  sky-blue  canopy  a 
graceful  query  of  the  night, 

"What  of  the  night,  sleeper  !  what  of  the  night  ? " 

Then  I  was  quickly  out  upon  the  floor  and 
dressed,  and  in  the  cosy  little  room  where  the 
fruits  and  flowers  were  hanging  on  the  wall,  and 
where  the  bright  face  of  Sophy,  and  aromatic  cof- 
fee, and  a  charming  little  breakfast  were  awaiting 
us  with  a  kindly  welcome. 

Breakfast  over,  I  left  the  Doctor  to  expend  his 
skill  and  knowledge  on  a  patient  who  had  sent  to 


56  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

claim  his  services,  and  strolled  out  over  the  rocks 
behind  the  town,  wondering  all  the  time  at  the 
strangeness  of  the  human  fancy  and  its  power  on 
the  will,  and  I  reflected  too,  and  remembered,  that 
in  the  explanation  of  the  satisfying  character  of 
the  life  which  my  new-found  friend  was  leading, 
there  had  been  no  clew  given  to  the  first  great 
motive  which  had  destined  such  a  finely  organized 
and  altogether  splendid  man  to  such  a  career.  Was 
he  exempt  from  the  lot  of  other  mortals  ?  or  must 
he,  too,  own,  like  all  the  rest  of  us,  when  we  own 
the  truth,  that  every  firm  step  we  ever  made  in 
those  days  of  our  early  lives  when  steps  were  criti- 
cal, was  made  to  please  a  woman — to  win  her  slight- 
est praise,  to  heal  a  wound  or  drown  a  sorrow  of  her 
making  ?  I  would  have  given  much  to  have  the 
question  answered,  for  then  a  thing  now  myste- 
rious would  have  become  as  plain  as  day  ;  but  there 
was  no  one  there  to  heed  the  question  or  to  give  the 
answer,  and  I  could  only  wander  on  over  the  rough 
rocks  wondering  more  and  more. 


II. 


TH  E    SAVAGE. 


He  was  a  dark,  unlettered  savage  ;  wild, 
Untamable.     You  might  as  well  have  tried 

To  tame  the  fiercest  jungled  forest  child — 
Tiger  or  leopard,  lion,  catamount.     Allied 

Were  these  to  him  by  nature.     Gentle  and  mild 
He  might  be  to  his  kith  and  kin,  but  pride 

Would  brook  no  interference  with  his  will 

Unchallenged.     Savage  born,  he  was  a  savage  still." 

ANON. 


II. 

THE    SAVAGE. 

"  Do  you  wish  to  see  one  of  my  friends  ? "  said 
Doctor  Molke  to  me  one  bright  morning,  while  I 
still  remained  his  guest. 

"Certainly." 

"But  he's  fifty  miles  or  so  away." 

"  So  much  the  better." 

"And  to  reach  him  is  not  v/ithout  danger." 

"  Not  greater  to  others  perhaps  than  to  yourself." 

"  Shall  we  set  out  at  once  ? " 

"  The  sooner  the  better." 

And  the  Doctor  once  more  tinkled  his  little  silver 
bell,  and  once  more  Sophy,  of  the  silver  seal-skin 
pantaloons  and  dainty  snow-white  boots,  tripped 
softly  through  the  door. 

"  We  are  going  on  a  journey,  Sophy,"  said  the 
Doctor ;  "  can  you  put  up  something  for  us  to  eat 

and  drink  ?  " 

59 


60  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

"  Yes,"  answered  Sophy,  promptly ;  "  but  I  should 
know  better  what  to  do  if  Doctor  Molke  would  tell 
me  how  long  he  means  to  be  away." 

"  Perhaps  a  week." 

"  A  week  !  "  exclaimed  Sophy,  evidently  surprised ; 
and  she  appeared  as  if  very  much  inclined  to  ask 
the  Doctor  where  he  proposed  taking  the  American 
to  stay  so  long,  for  she  looked  first  at  him  and  then 
at  me,  and  then  at  him  again. 

The  Doctor  quickly  interpreted  the  puzzled  ex- 
pression of  the  countenance  of  his  housekeeper,  and 
prepared  to  gratify  her. 

"You  would  like  to  know,  Sophy,"  said  he,  "  where 
we  are  going,  would  you  not  ?  " 

"Yes,"  she  answered,  and  with  a  promptness,  too, 
which  showed  that  she  had  great  interest  in  the  mat- 
ter, though  I  could  not  imagine  why. 

"  Then  suppose  I  tell  you  we  are  going  to  pay  our 
respects  to  Sipsu,  the  savage,"  said  the  Doctor. 

"  I  shouldn't  half  believe  it  if  you  did,"  answered 
Sophy. 

"  But  we  are,  really  and  truly,"  said  the  Doctor. 

"  Really  and  truly,"  echoed  Sophy,  in,  as  it  seemed 
to  me,  a  half-inquiring,  half -pleading  tone  of  voice. 

"  Really  and  truly,  Sophy." 


The  Savage.  6 1 

"  Oh,  don't  do  that !  "  said  she. 

"  Why  not,  Sophy  ? " 

"  Because,"  she  answered,  hesitating,  "  because 
it's  such  a  horrid  place  to  take  the  American  ;  it 
will  give  him  such  a  bad  idea  of  the  country — and 
— and  the  people." 

"  Perhaps  his  ideas  of  the  country  and  the  people 
are  as  bad  as  bad  can  be,  already,  Sophy ;  at  any 
rate,  I  think  he  can  stand  it,  so  be  a  good  girl  now, 
and  help  us  off." 

This  appeal  to  be  a  good  girl  and  help  us  off,  was 
clearly  made  on  the  weak  side  of  Sophy's  character, 
for  it  was  easy  to  see  that  a  good  girl,  in  Doctor 
Molke's  estimation,  was  what  Sophy  was  very  glad 
to  be.  At  least  she  made  no  further  remonstrance, 
but  at  once  tripped  lightly  out,  as  she  had  tripped 
lightly  in,  to  do  her  master's  bidding,  giving,  as  she 
turned  to  go,  a  cunning  little  pout  and  a  modest 
shrug,  which  could  not  have  been  better  done  nor 
more  charming  to  look  upon,  had  Sophy  been 
dressed  in  petticoats  and  skirts,  instead  of  silver 
seal-skin  pantaloons,  and  dainty  snow-white  boots, 
and  fur-tipped  jacket,  reaching  to  the  waist. 

In  a  couple  of  hours  everything  was  ready  for 
the  start,  and  we  went  down  to  the  boat.  And  the 


62  Pictures  of  Arctic   Travel. 

boat  was  really  ready  to  some  purpose.  The  stern- 
sheets  presented  a  tempting  nest  of  fine  robes  of 
bear  and  fox-skins ;  a  tent  lay  rolled  up  beside  the 
mast ;  the  locker  beneath  the  robes  was  filled  with 
whatever,  in  the  shape  of  eatables,  and  drinkables, 
and  smokables,  the  most  fastidious  taste  or  hungry 
appetite  could  desire,  in  reason ;  while  stretched 
across  the  thwarts  were  guns,  and  rifles,  and  pouches, 
and  indeed  everything  that  a  hunter  needed  for  a  long 
campaign.  Then  there  was  a  cooking  furnace  for- 
ward in  the  bows,  and  it  was  clear  enough  that  noth- 
ing had  been  neglected  by  my  prudent  host,  or  the 
thoughtful  Sophy,  or  the  pilot  Adam,  that  could  con- 
tribute to  the  comfort  of  the  inner  or  the  outer  man. 
Adam  was  as  odd-looking  a  pilot  as  was  ever 
seen.  Coppery-faced,  heavy-jawed,  broad-visaged, 
beardless,  fur-coated,  and  altogether  stumpy,  he  was 
clearly  a  native-born  Esquimau,  for  nothing  else  was 
ever  molded  exactly  after  that  pattern.  He  was 
clean,  which  showed  that  he  had  received  instruction, 
and  by  it  had  profited.  His  name  indicated  that  he 
enjoyed  the  benefits  of  baptism,  and  was  of  the 
Christian  faith.  He  could  speak  a  little  English, 
which  proved  that  the  schoolmaster  was  abroad, 
even  then,  in  Greenland. 


The  Savage.  63 

"All  ready,  Adam?"  inquired  the  Doctor,  as  we 
stepped  aboard. 

"  Very  ready,"  answered  the  pilot,  evidently  desir- 
ing to  exhibit  his  proficiency  in  the  English  tongue, 
for  my  particular  benefit. 

"  Up  anchor  then,  and  shake  out  the  sails." 

The  anchor  was  soon  lifted  out  of  a  great  bed 
of  sea-weed,  in  which  it  had  been  lying,  and  the 
sails  unfurled  by  the  sealskin-coated  Adam,  as- 
sisted by  three  other  natives,  who  had  been  shipped 
to  pull  an  oar,  in  case  of  need  ;  and  now,  with  the 
Doctor  at  the  helm,  we  were  soon  gliding  out  of  the 
harbor,  shaping  our  course  for  the  mainland  to  the 
eastward. 

The  wind  soon  became  light,  and  baffling,  but  the 
time  being  midsummer  the  temperature  was  warm, 
and  the  sun  shone  upon  us  all  the  time,  as  bright 
and  glorious  at  midnight  as  at  noon.  This  cir- 
cumstance gave  to  the  day  a  strange  romantic  fresh- 
ness that  was  truly  delightful,  for,  although  the  con- 
tinuous daylight  of  the  Arctic  summer  was  not  new 
to  me,  yet  it  seemed,  for  all,  a  novel  thing  to  be 
sailing  on  and  on  in  an  open  boat,  and  never  needing 
to  look  up  a  place  of  retreat  or  anticipate  the  night. 

We  were  full  thirty-six  continuous  hours  upon  the 


64  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

water,  and  during  this  protracted  sail  we  watched 
the  changing  scenery  without  weariness,  breaking 
the  monotony  now  and  then  by  prying  into  the 
mysteries  of  Sophy's  well-stocked  locker,  or  by  a 
shot  at  a  passing  duck,  or  gull,  or  other  bird,  or  by 
a  nap,  or  by  whatever  else  served  most  pleasantly  to 
while  away  the  time. 

And  the  scenery  about  us  was  at  all  times  enough 
in  itself  to  occupy  the  thoughts  and  prevent  fatigue. 
The  great  solid  wall  of  the  Greenland  coast  rose 
steadily  before  us,  and  the  multiplying  cones  of 
whiteness  which  climbed  up  behind  it  melted  away 
among  the  clouds,  unbroken  by  a  single  ray  of 
green — one  boundless  waste  of  sterile  rocks,  sub- 
lime as  they  were  desolate. 

By  and  by  little  islands  began  to  show  themselves 
above  the  water ;  and  as  we  passed  near  some  of 
them,  the  eye  was  charmed  by  the  discovery  of  here 
and  there  a  patch  of  grass  or  moss  mosaiced  in 
dark  slopes,  like  emerald  in  a  bed  of  jet.  On  sev- 
eral of  these  islands  there  were  lonely  little  hunter's 
huts.  Sometimes  these  huts  had  peaked  roofs,  but 
more  usually  the  roof  was  flat,  the  former  denoting 
the  white  man's  home,  the  latter  the  shelter  of  a 
native  hunter.  Desolate  as  appeared  the  land,  and 


The  Savage.  65 

dreary  as  it  seemed  for  human  residence,  the  air 
and  sea  were  teeming  with  life.  Great  flocks  of 
birds,  principally  eider-ducks,  different  varieties  of 
auks,  and  glaucus,  tridactyl,  and  other  gulls,  were 
constantly  darting  by  or  curiously  hovering  over- 
head. Seals  in  great  numbers  were  sporting  in  the 
sea,  putting  up  their  half-human  faces  when  we 
neared  them,  as  if  to  ask  why  we  had  come  into 
their  haunts,  and,  sometimes,  again  upon  the  ice- 
fields that  we  passed,  great  schools  of  them  were 
lazily  basking  in  the  summer's  sun,  or  were  fast 
asleep  in  the  noonday  warmth. 

And  during  all  this  time  icebergs  were  constantly 
in  sight,  rising  one  after  another  from  the  sea  before 
us,  and  sinking  away  behind  us,  passing  us,  as  it 
were,  in  solemn  procession,  sparkling  all  the  while 
like  precious  gems,  and,  now  and  then,  cracking  and 
crumbling  to  pieces,  piercing  the  air  with  sounds 
compared  to  which  the  loudest  thunder  would  be 
hoarse  and  feeble.  This  latter  phenomenon  was 
clearly  caused  by  the  warmth  of  the  sun,  which, 
falling  unequally  upon  them,  split  them  with  ex- 
plosive violence,  and  tumbled  fragments  from  their 
sides-  like  a  blast  of  powder  in  a  quarry  cliff. 

Passing  on  among  these  unusual  scenes,  we  came 


66  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

at  length  beneath  a  lofty  cape,  which  rose  almost 
squarely  from  the  sea  to  the  height,  as  it  seemed,  of 
two  or  three  thousand  feet  or  more.  Commencing 
at  the  bottom,  a  series  of  ledges  followed  each  other 
half  way  to  the  top,  and  on  these  ledges  were  stand- 
ing, or  sitting  bolt  upright,  long  rows  of  birds  with 
black  heads  and  backs  and  pure  white  breasts, 
crowded  close  together,  and  looking  for  all  the 
world  like  soldiers  with  black  shakos  and  Austrian 
coats,  shoulder  to  shoulder,  in  solid  column  on 
parade.  They  were  the  well-known  lumme,  one 
of  the  most  numerous  varieties  of  the  Greenland 
auks. 

There  was  not  much  sport  to  be  had  in  slaughter- 
ing such  stupid  looking  innocents  as  these,  and  so 
we  ran  in  close  to  the  cliff  to  observe  rather  than  to 
shoot. 

The  birds  upon  the  lower  ledges,  were,  as  we 
came  near,  readily  counted,  but  above  they  vanished 
into  scarcely  distinguishable  streaks  of  white.  To 
and  from  all  the  ledges,  low  and  high,  birds  were 
coming  and  going  continually,  as  bees  come  and  go 
from  a  hive,  hurrying  to  the  sea  to  get  a  meal  •  of 
shrimps,  and  hurrying  back  again  to  nurse  their 
eggs,  each  to  its  own  particular  egg,  for  each  lays 


TJic  Savage.  67 

but  one,  on  which  it  sits  or  stands  bolt  upright,  and 
hatches  out  the  chick  without  a  nest  of  any  sort,  and 
without  the  least  protection  from  the  naked  rock. 

The  eggs  being  all  alike,  it  seemed  to  me  strange 
that  each  bird  should  know  its  own,  and  come  back 
to  it,  but  the  Doctor  told  me  that  they  did  this  with 
unerring  certainty,  each  picking  out  its  egg  as  a 
hen  would  pick  her  brood  of  chickens  from1  the 
largest  flock.  Sometimes  an  egg,  however,  tumbles 
from  its  shelf  while  its  owner  is  away,  and  then  the 
unhappy  bird  seizes  upon  the  first  unclaimed  one 
she  can  find  when  she  comes  back,  and  down  she 
sits  upon  it  as  unconcernedly  as  if  it  were  her  own, 
and  there  were  no  means  among  the  feathered  tribes 
for  the  punishment  of  theft.  But  she  must  take  good 
care  that  she  is  not  observed,  else  punishment  will 
surely  come.  The  robbed  bird  may  rob  another  in 
her  turn,  but  woe  be  unto  her  if  the  theft  be  known. 
I  saw  one  old  sobersides  as  we  passed  along  sud- 
denly pounced  upon  by  an  infuriated  hen,  whose 
egg  she  had  doubtless  stolen  ;  and  then  began  a 
combat  as  fierce  and  angry  as  ever  took  place  be- 
tween old  fish-wives.  The  birds  clutched  each  other 
by  the  throat,  they  pounded  each  other  with  their 
wings,  they  pegged  away  at  each  other's  eyes,  until, 


68  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

at  last,  their  bills  were  locked  together,  and  down 
they  floundered  to  the  water,  where  they  kept  on 
fighting  still  until  we  pulled  them  into  the  boat  and 
parted  them,  when  Adam  quickly  wrung  their  necks, 
and  soon  after  had  them  stewing  in  his  pot  and 
made  a  meal  of  them. 

Combats  such  as  these  were  very  frequent,  and 
the  shrieks  of  the  fighting  birds,  the  screams  of  the 
other  birds,  who  seemed  to  be  spoiling  for  a  fight, 
the  endless  scoldings  and  chatterings  that  were  go- 
ing on  between  near  neighbors  as  they  sat  there 
bolt  upright  on  their  rocky  shelves,  all  mingled 
with  and  added  to  the  ceaseless  flutter  of  the  wings 
of  birds  that  were  flying  to  and  fro,  filled  the  air 
with  a  roaring  sound,  which,  distinguishable  for 
miles,  as  if  it  were  the  deep  murmuring  of  a  distant 
water-fall,  almost  drowned  our  voices  as  we  neared 
the  cape. 

But  this  was  nothing  to  what  we  were  to  see,  for 
the  Doctor  had  it  in  his  head  to  make  a  sensation. 
He  proposed  a  shot,  not,  as  he  said,  to  slaughter  the 
innocents,  but  to  give  them  a  fright  for  my  particu- 
lar benefit.  Accordingly,  all  our  pieces  being  made 
ready,  we  fired  them  in  concert.  The  effect  was 
wonderful.  As  the  strange  wild  echo  of  the  guns 


The  Savage.  69 

rang  from  crag  to  crag,  off  from  every  ledge,  from 
the  top  to  the  bottom  of  the  lofty  wall,  and  through- 
out its  mile  5r  more  of  length,  from  end  to  end,  the 
startled  birds  came  with  a  rush  of  a  tornado — ten 
thousand,  or  perhaps  a  thousand  times  ten  thousand, 
frightened,  fluttering,  screaming  birds.  It  was  an 
instantaneous  rush,  a  wild  leap  into  the  air,  some 
darting  upwards,  some  downwards,  others  in  a  zig- 
zag course,  and  all  in  such  rapid  flight  that  they 
fairly  whistled  through  the  air,  while  down  along 
the  wall  behind  them,  from  ledge  to  ledge,  came  a 
perfect  cataract  of  spattering  eggs. 

The  number  of  birds  that  passed  over  us  was 
something  almost  incredible.  They  were  so  thick 
for  a  few  moments  that  they  cast  a  shadow  like  a 
cloud.  They  soon  came  down  with  a  tremendous 
splash  upon  the  sea,  all,  at  least  except  a  few  of  the 
bravest,  who  wheeled  about  and  put  back  again 
before  they  had  flown  far.  Upon  the  sea,  however, 
they  did  not  long  remain,  but,  gaining  courage,  all 
swarmed  back  again  to  their  rocky  ledges,  hastening 
to  get  upon  their  eggs  once  more  before  they  cooled. 
And  there,  as  we  looked  back  with  our  glasses,  we 
saw  them  in  the  distance,  in  long  rows,  sitting  bolt 
upright  as  they  had  been  before. 


70  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

This  cliff  passed,  we  were  now  fairly  within  a 
deep,  wide  bay  or  fiord.  The  coast  on  either  side 
was  lofty,  tortuous,  and  craggy  ;  the  land  behind 
the  coast  was  mountainous  and  white.  The  fiord 
was  dotted  with  islands,  and  was  crowded  with  ice- 
bergs of  every  conceivable  form  and  size. 

The  scene  was  dreary  past  description,  and  grew 
more  and  more  dreary  as  we  went  along  ;  for  the 
icebergs  multiplied  in  number,  and  the  smaller 
fragments  covered  the  sea  to  such  an  extent  that 
we  were  often  compelled  to  pick  a  crooked  pas- 
sage, or  to  make  a  wide  detour.  And  all  the 
while,  as  we  were  thus  pushing  our  way  into  this 
cheerless  wilderness,  deafening  sounds  were  pealing 
through  the  air  and  reverberating  from  the  cliffs, 
for  masses  of  ice  were,  as  described  before,  tum- 
bling from  the  bergs  on  every  side,  while  now  and 
then  a  berg  turned  over  in  the  sea,  rolling  the  waves 
beneath  us  as  if  a  gale  of  wind  were  piling  up  the 
waters. 

To  the  dreariness  of  the  scene  a  weird  effect 
was  added  by  the  frequently  strange  shapes  of  the 
bergs,  as  we  passed  them  by  ;  for  in  the  clear,  glit- 
tering ice  were  fashioned  rude  semblances  of  towers 
and  spires,  of  castles  and  architectural  designs  of 


The  Savage.  71 

every  sort,  and  beasts,  and  birds,  and  sphinx-like 
statues  colossal  as  those  of  Thebes. 

But  by  and  by  a  pleasant  light  came  stealing 
through  the  ice  forest  from  the  midnight  sun, 
and  the  bergs  reflected  the  hues  of  the  sky  and 
clouds  above,  blue,  and  purple,  and  bright  crimson, 
while  the  water,  as  seen  against  the  ice,  was  green. 
Its  tender,  emerald  hues  were  reflected  up  into 
the  deep  caverns  and  underneath  the  overhanging 
shelves  and  tongues  of  the  icy  walls ;  and,  as  the 
waves  rolled  into  these  caverns,  and  beneath  these 
overhanging  shelves,  sometimes  with  a  deep  re- 
sounding roar,  the  green  light  would  come  and  go, 
and  flutter,  as  if  it  were  a  vapor  playing  there. 

This  play  of  light  in  the  air  and  water  was,  how- 
ever, of  short  duration,  for  a  heavy  cloud  at  length 
came  trailing  over  us  from  the  sea,  at  first  winding 
gracefully  about  the  crests  of  the  icebergs,  and  then 
after  a  while  settling  down  heavily  upon  the  waters 
in  a  blinding  mist. 

And  now  the  sounds  of  falling  ice,  which  before 
could  be  traced  to  their  source,  came  from  out  a 
gloom  into  which  the  eye  could  not  penetrate. 
Mysterious  darkness  hung  over  the  fiord,  and  it 
seemed  as  if  mysterious  voices  were  warning  us 


72  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

away,  or  enticing  us  to  ruin  ;  and,  as  I  listened  to 
these  voices  coming  through  the  fog,  it  really  did 
seem  as  if  there  was  but  a  slender  chance  for  us 
ever  coming  out  alive. 

The  Doctor  was  intent  upon  his  duty  of  steering 
the  boat,  and  he  guided  it  with  a  skillful  hand. 
Conversation  was  checked  by  the  necessity  for 
greater  caution  and  watchfulness.  I  observed  the 
Doctor's  fine  face  attentively.  His  practiced  eye 
was  quick  to  detect  every  new  danger  in  season  to 
avoid  it. 

Presently,  however,  his  face  wore  an  expression  of 
intense  earnestness.  He  peered  into  the  dense  fog- 
bank  ahead  of  us  in  a  way  that  quite  astonished  me. 
An  instant  more  and  he  had  jammed  his  helm  hard 
down.  The  boat  came  quickly  to,  but  I  could  see 
no  cause  for  this  maneuver.  There  was  scarcely  a 
piece  of  ice  visible,  and  we  were  free,  so  far  as  I 
could  perceive,  from  every  source  of  danger,  lying 
quietly  upon  the  dark  waters,  the  sails  shaking  and 
flapping  in  the  light  wind. 

But  when  I  directed  my  eyes  to  the  same  quarter 
with  Doctor  Molke's,  I  was  not  long  in  detecting  a 
moving  object  vaguely  looming  through  the  murky 
air,  and  very  near  to  us.  The  fog  and  the  sea  were  so 


The  Savage.  73 

closely  blended  that  there  was  no  line  of  demarka- 
tion  visible  beyond  the  distance  of  a  few  yards,  and 
the  object,  whatever  it  might  be,  seemed  as  if  it 
were  floating  in  the  air,  swaying  from  side  to  side, 
and  steadily  coming  toward  us.  When  it  had  ar- 
rived within  about  fifty  yards  it  wheeled  to  the  left, 
and  appeared  to  increase  its  speed. 

Up  to  this  time,  whatever  may  have  been  the  im- 
pression upon  Doctor  Molke's  mind  as  to  the  nature 
of  the  apparition,  I  was  certainly  much  puzzled, 
the  thick  atmosphere  magnified  it  so  immensely  and 
distorted  its  proportions  in  every  way.  The  re- 
fraction of  the  fog  apparently  lifted  it  above  the 
place  where  the  imagination  placed  the  line  of 
water,  and  it  might  well  have  been  taken  for  some 
huge  winged  creature  from  the  skies  sweeping  down 
upon  us  with  threatening  gestures. 

I  was  not,  however,  long  in  doubt,  for  the  mo- 
ment the  object  wheeled  I  detected  in  the  little 
shimmering  line  of  light  which  lay  above  the  water 
the  outline  of  a  boat  and  the  figure  of  a  man  pad- 
dling through  the  mist. 

At  this  instant  the  Doctor  called  loudly  to  the 
strange  boatman  to  stop,  but  he  was  evidently  not 

so  inclined,  holding  steadily  to  his  altered  course, 
4 


74  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

and  apparently  exerting  himself  to  the  utmost  to 
hide  himself  again  in  the  gloom  from  which  he  had 
so  suddenly  emerged. 

As  soon  as  it  became  clear  that  the  boatman 
would  not  stop  in  obedience  to  his  summons,  the 
Doctor  dropped  the  tiller,  and,  before  I  knew  what 
he  was  about,  the  sharp  crack  of  a  rifle  stunned  my 
ear  and  went  echoing  among  the  invisible  icebergs. 

I  saw  the  rifle  ball  strike  the  water  to  the  left  of 
the  boatman,  and  as  curiosity  was  keenly  excited  to 
know  more  of  him,  I  was  glad  that  no  harm  had 
been  done  ;  and,  in  truth,  there  was  on  the  Doctor's 
part  no  intention  of  injuring  him,  for  the  rifle  had 
not  been  aimed.  He  had  fired  merely  to  "  bring 
him  to."  And  it  had  that  result  most  speedily,  for 
the  boat  was  wheeled  about  at  once,  and  the  boat- 
man halted  facing  us. 

"  Come  here  !  "  shouted  the  Doctor  in  a  peremp- 
tory tone  of  voice.  Without  further  delay  the  boat- 
man started  toward  us,  slowly  however  and  cau- 
tiously. 

The  conduct  of  this  boatman  was  wholly  inexpli- 
cable to  me,  for  there  could  be  no  doubt  that  he  saw 
us,  and  also  heard  the  summons  of  Doctor  Molke. 
Why,  then,  was  he  seeking  to  avoid  us  ?  It  seemed 


The  Savage.  75 

to  me  that  the  meeting  of  human  beings  in  a  place 
like  this,  lonely  and  full  of  danger,  must  be  such  an 
unusual  event  that,  under  any  circumstances,  it 
would  be  welcome. 

Why,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Doctor  should  mani- 
fest such  great  eagerness  to  speak  to  the  man,  when 
he  was  with  not  less  eagerness  striving  to  avoid  us, 
I  was  equally  at  loss  to  understand,  the  more  espe- 
cially as  I  could  not  see  that  the  Doctor  would,  in 
any  possible  way,  be  the  gainer  by  an  interview. 

I  looked  into  the  Doctor's  face  to  see  if  that 
would  help  me  to  read  the  riddle  ;  but  I  could  only 
see  that  Doctor  Molke  was  clearly  not  a  man  in  the 
habit  of  seeing  his  commands  slighted. 

The  effect  was  most  remarkable  as  the  boat 
approached  us.  From  its  immense  size  and  the 
constantly  changing  shape  which  it  assumed  in  the 
dense  fog,  the  figure  dwindled  down  at  length  to 
human  proportions  as  it  came  near,  paddling  to  right 
and  left. 

There  was  something  so  strange  in  our  situation 
and  surroundings,  that  the  introduction  of  this  epi- 
sode into  the  experiences  of  the  day,  the  sudden 
appearance  of  a  human  being  in  this  vast  ice-forest 
and  impenetrable  mist,  and  the  bringing  him  to  our 


76  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

side,  as  it  seemed,  a  captive,  added  the  fascination 
of  mystery  to  the  sense  of  novelty  and  surprise. 
The  incident  occurred  most  opportunely,  for  I  had 
already  made  up  my  mind  that  with  the  closing 
down  of  the  fog  had  come  the  end  of  our  pleasant 
experiences,  and,  growing  damp  and  chilly,  was 
about  to  bury  myself  in  the  fur  robes  and  be  pa- 
tient. 

But  who  and  what  was  this  mysterious  boatman  ? 
To  give  it  the  greater  romance,  I  might  have  taken 
him  for  some  pirate  of  the  ice-forest,  had  the  idea 
of  icebergs  and  pirates  been  in  any  way  capable  of 
association.  There  was  more  reason  for  belief  that 
he  was  some  outlawed  criminal  fleeing  from  the 
sight  of  man,  and  venturing  abroad  only  when 
nature  dropped  a  curtain  behind  which  he  might 
steal  in  safety,  for  when  I  got  a  fair  view  of  his  face 
I  found  it  not  by  any  means  attractive,  and  yet  one 
could  not  feel  disposed  to  judge  the  man  by  any 
common  standard. 

A  more  singular-looking  creature  it  would  be  diffi- 
cult to  imagine.  His  boat  itself  was  a  curiosity  to 
behold — the  frailest  thing  perhaps  that  ever  carried 
human  freight.  And  yet,  to  the  nautical  eye,  its 
lines  were  beautiful — gracefully  curved,  and  indicat- 


The  Savage.  77 

ing  speed.  It  had  no  keel,  as  I  afterward  discov- 
ered, and  it  rode  upon  the  water  with  the  lightness 
of  a  duck,  turning  about  as  easily  and  shooting  for- 
ward or  backward  without  any  apparent  effort  of 
the  boatman.  It  was  propelled  and  guided  by  a 
long  oar,  which  the  boatman  grasped  in  the  mid- 
dle, and  which  had  a  blade  at  either  end,  and  neatly 
tipped  and  strengthened  with  walrus  ivory.  The 
length  of  the  boat  was  about  twenty  feet,  and  its 
width  as  many  inches  at  the  middle,  from  which  it 
tapered  to  a  sharp,  upward-curving  point  at  either 
end,  where  were  ivory  ornaments,  as  on  the  paddles, 
and  an  ivory  cut-water,  thin  and  sharp,  like  the 
blade  of  a  knife.  The  frame  of  it  was  made  of 
light  wood,  the  different  'pieces  cunningly  lashed 
together,  and,  over  this  slender  frame  tanned  seal- 
skins were  stretched  and  sewed  with  sinew  thread  in 
a  perfect  seam.  The  skins  covered  the  top  as  well 
as  sides  and  bottom,  leaving  only  a  small  hole  at 
the  center  to  admit  the  boatman's  body  to  the  waist. 
Around  this  hole  was  drawn  firmly  the  lower  mar- 
gin of  the  boatman's  outer  coat,  which,  made  of  the 
same  sort  of  tanned  leather  as  the  boat  itself,  was 
surmounted  with  a  hood  that  covered  up  the  head, 
and  was  bound  tightly  with  a  draw-string  around 


78  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

the  face  before  the  ears,  while  the  sleeves  were 
fastened  with  other  draw-strings  about  the  wrists. 
There  was  not  left  a  single  orifice  through  which 
a  drop  of  water  could  find  its  way  either  to  the 
body  of  the  man  or  inside  his  boat,  no  matter  how 
much  the  waves  might  wash  over  him,  even  burying 
man,  boat,  and  all  from  sight. 

The  man  and  the  boat  were  indeed  one — bound 
together,  moving  together,  acting  together  in  every 
way,  and  apparently  possessed  of  the  same  life  and 
will.  It  seemed  almost  as  if  the  whole  might  be 
some  marine  monster — a  sort  of  centaur  of  the  sea. 

I  have  said  the  face  of  the  man  was  not  attract- 
ive, but  I  should  rather  say  that  it  was  savage — sav- 
age in  every  feature — coarse,  and  unrestrained,  and 
strong,  full  of  passion  and  of  energy,  but  whether 
naturally  cruel,  I  could  not  well  make  out. 

His  features,  which  were  of  a  dark  copper  hue, 
showed  plainly  that  he  belonged  to  the  same  race 
as  our  pilot  Adam,  and  differed  only  in  degree  in 
being  coarser  in  every  particular.  Everything  that 
was  marked  in  Adam's  face  was  more  marked  in 
this  mysterious  boatman's.  The  face  was  some- 
thing broader,  the  cheek-bones  were  more  project- 
ing, the  jaws  were  heavier,  the  nose  was  flatter. 


TJic  Savage.  79 

The  mouth  was  very  large  and  very  wide,  the  chin 
was  small,  and  the  lips  were  thick.  The  upper  lip 
was  long,  and  on  this  and  the  chin  there  were  a  few 
stiff  black  hairs,  but  upon  no  other  part  of  the  face 
was  there  any  beard.  As  in  all  his  race,  the  inner 
corners  of  the  eyes  were  drawn  down,  giving  the 
impression  that  the  nose  had  tumbled  from  its  natu- 
ral fastenings,  and  had  pulled  the  eyes  a  little  out 
of  place. 

Why  the  Doctor  had  brought  him  to  us  was,  of 
course,  what  I  wished  to  know.  But  the  Doctor 
was  so  intent  upon  securing  him,  that  I  determined 
to  postpone  the  solution  of  the  matter  to  some  other 
time,  contenting  myself  with  observing,  before  he 
came  well  in  view,  that  I  thought  it  "  strange  that 
he  should  desire,  seemingly  at  least,  to  avoid  us." 

"  Oh,  not  at  all,"  responded  the  Doctor,  "not  at 
all ;  these  Greenlanders  are  an  odd  race,  and  their 
whims  are  endless." 

"  He  is  then  an  Esquimau  ?  "  said  I  inquiringly. 

"  Yes,  and  I  should  have  told  you  that  before. 
But,  you  see  I  took  a  fancy  to  speak  with  him,  and 
I  was  busy  about  that.  Besides,  I  did  not  want  him 
to  get  away,  after  I  had  ordered  him  to  come  to 
me  ;  that  would  never  do  unless  I  should  choose 


8o  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

forever  to  lose  all  influence  over  him.  Not  only  is 
he  an  Esquimau,  but  an  untamed  one.  We  call  him 
Sipsu,  the  savage." 

"The  name,  I  think,  of  the  person  we  are  to 
visit." 

"  The  very  same,  and  this  is  the  very  man  him- 
self. You  see  I  did  well  to  send  that  ball  after  the 
fellow,  for  otherwise  we  should  have  missed  him, 
and  been  deprived  of  the  chief  pleasure  of  our 
call." 

Sipsu  was  looking  very  sullen,  as  he  had  abundant 
cause  to  do,  as  I  thought.  When  within  a  few  yards 
of  us,  he  backed  water  with  his  oar,  and  brought  his 
boat  to  rest  almost  with  the  suddenness  of  a  skillful 
rider  bringing  up  a  horse  on  his  haunches. 

"  Hallo,  Sipsu,"  cried  the  Doctor,  as  if  noticing 
his  sullen  looks  ;  "  I  thought  you  didn't  see  us,  and 
didn't  hear  me  call,  so  I  fired  to  let  you  know  we 
were  about." 

Sipsu  did  not  appear  to  see  any  joke  in  the  firing 
of  the  rifle,  nor  pleasure  in  being  near  us  ;  for  he 
gave  neither  smile  nor  answer,  and  did  not  change 
a  muscle  of  his  stolid  face. 

"  We  are  going  up  to  see  you,"  continued  the 
Doctor.  "  Here  is  a  stranger  come  in  a  big  ship 


The  Savage.  81 

from  a  great  country  far  away  across  the  waters,  and 
he  wants  to  visit  you.  We  are  going  up  to  your 
island." 

The  savage  manifested  no  further  signs  of  satis- 
faction than  he  had  done  before,  merely  nodding 
his  head  and  saying  "Ap,"  for  yes,  by  way  of 
signifying  that  he  understood  what  was  said  to 
him. 

"Where  were  you  going  to  in  such  a  desperate 
hurry,  Sipsu  ?"  asked  the  Doctor. 

"  Catch  seals,"  answered  Sipsu,  in  a  language 
which  former  experiences  enabled  me  sufficiently  to 
understand. 

"All  right,"  replied  the  Doctor,  "very  good. 
Now  Sipsu  lead  the  way  while  we  follow  after,  and 
mind  don't  go  too  fast.  If  you  hear  me  call,  you 
had  better  stop  at  once." 

The  savage  "appeared  to  hesitate,  and  looked  more 
sullen  than  ever. 

"  Do  you  hear  ? "  exclaimed  the  Doctor  in  a 
louder  voice. 

At  this  the  savage  dipped  his  oar  and  turned  his 
boat  up  the  fiord,  and  with  two  sturdy  strokes  shot 
his  little  craft  ahead  as  if  it  were  an  arrow  from  a 
bow. 

4* 


82  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

"  Slow  and  easy,"  called  the  Doctor  after  him, 
"slow  and  easy,"  and  Sipsu  eased  his  stroke  and 
proceeded  quietly. 

"  A  little  angry  just  now  at  being  disturbed,"  ex- 
plained the  Doctor,  "  but  he'll  soon  cool  off." 

"  Much  bad  man  !  "  exclaimed  Adam  overhear- 
ing his  master's  words. 

"  Much  mind  your  business  and  get  that  jib-tack 
aboard  ! "  exclaimed  the  Doctor  rather  impatiently. 

Under  the  healthful  stimulus  of  this  command, 
Adam  and  his  fellows  quickly  performed  their  part 
of  the  preparation  for  getting  under  way,  and  we 
were  soon  once  more  standing  up  the  fiord,  Sipsu 
leading  off,  and  as  he  had  been  directed,  adapting 
his  movements  to  our  own. 

We  had  not  far  to  go,  for  in  less  than  half  an 
hour  a  dark  rock  loomed  through  the  thick  atmos- 
phere, and  almost  as  soon  as  it  was  seen  we  were 
alongside  of  it  and  ashore.  Sipsu  pulled  up  near  by, 
and  laying  his  boat  close  to  the  rock,  placed  his 
paddle  on  it  and,  with  this  to  steady  him,  he  drew 
himself  out  of  his  cranky  little  craft,  then  seizing  it 
with  his  right  hand,  he  took  it  on  his  arm  as  one 
would  take  a  common  market-basket,  and  started 
up  the  rocky  slope,  we  following. 


The  Savage.  83 

In  a  few  moments  we  came  to  a  large  seal-skin 
tent,  and  on  a  great  platform  of  flat  stones,  elevated 
on  eight  pillars  of  the  same  material,  Sipsu  placed 
his  boat.  This  platform  was  about  six  feet  from 
the  ground,  and  held  a  sledge,  a  great  quantity  of 
harpoons  and  spears  and  lines  and  harness  for  dogs, 
some  twenty  or  more  of  which  were  howling  about 
us  the  moment  we  had  landed. 

"  Why  are  these  things  put  there  so  carefully  ? " 
I  asked. 

"  To  keep  the  dogs  from  tearing  them  to  pieces." 

And,  indeed,  the  villainous  and  wolfish  appear- 
ance of  the  animals  was  in  keeping  with  their  de- 
structive reputation.  Savage  and  untamed  like  their 
master,  they  kept  circling  round  us,  snarling  in  a 
very  threatening  and  disagreeable  sort  of  way.  They 
were  of  all  sizes  and  colors,  and,  unlike  those  which 
I  had  usually  seen  in  the  country  elsewhere,  they 
were  sleek  and  well  fed,  and  looked  as  if  they  might 
whirl  a  sledge  over  the  ice  at  a  very  rapid  rate. 

When  Sipsu  had  put  away  his  boat  (kayak  he 
called  it),  he  took  off  his  tanned  seal-skin  coat  and 
stood  before  us  robed  in  shaggy  furs,  and  now  it  was 
that  for  the  first  time  the  sullen  lines  of  his  face 
were  crossed  by  any  other  expression.  Suddenly  he 


84  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

gave  a  broad  and  hideous  grin,  and  proceeded  to 
imitate  a  white  man's  custom  by  advancing  toward 
me  with  an  outstretched  hand.  For  an  instant  I  felt 
inclined  to  shrink,  as  I  would  from  the  embrace  of 
one  of  Du  Chaillu's  gorillas,  but  my  repugnance  to 
the  savage  did  not  make  itself  apparent,  and,  indeed, 
when  he  opened  his  mouth  to  speak,  I  found  my- 
self so  much  amused  by  what  he  said  that  1  only 
remembered  I  was  holding  the  hancl  of  an  exceed- 
ingly interesting  and  curious  specimen  of  the  human 
race. 

"  Why,"  said  he  to  Doctor  Molke,  with  an  appar- 
ent heartiness  difficult,  after  the  Doctor's  recent 
treatment  of  him,  to  understand  ;  "  why  it's  as  good 
as  a  big  fat  seal  to  see  you,  and  better  than  a  pile  of 
eggs  to  see  this  other  man.  Who  is  he  ? " 

Whereupon  the  Doctor  told  him,  and  then  the 
savage  invited  us  to  enter  his  tent,  himself  leading 
the  way. 

"  Here's  an  intirieur  for  you,"  said  the  Doctor  as 
we  entered. 

And  truly  it  was  a  curious  one.  Half  the  floor 
was  raised  a  little  above  the  other  with  flat  stones, 
and  on  the  edge  of  this  raised  place  sat  three  women 
dressed  in  shaggy  furs  like  Sipsu,  and  having  round 


The  Savage.  85 

coarse  faces  like  Sipsu,  and  the  same  flat  and  tum- 
ble-down appearance  generally  of  eyes  and  nose 
which  distinguished  the  Sipsu  countenance ;  and  be- 
hind these  three  women  seven  children  had  rooted 
and  stowed  themselves  away  in  a  nest  of  furs,  as  little 
pigs  would  root  and  stow  themselves  away  in  a  well- 
littered  sty,  leaving  their  seven  odd-shaped  little 
heads  only  to  be  seen,  and  from  these  seven  little 
heads  fourteen  little  tumble-down  eyes  stared  at  us 
wildly. 

Two  of  these  women  were  watching  lamps  that 
were  but  open  soap-stone  dishes,  which  were  sup- 
ported upon  stones,  and  were  smoking  villainously 
beneath  pots  of  the  same  material  hung  suspended 
from  the  rafters  of  the  tent.  From  these  same 
rafters  were  dangling  articles  of  dress  and  skins 
of  bears  and  foxes.  In  the  left-hand  corner 
there  was  a  pile  of  the  same  sort  of  materials.  In 
the  right  hand  corner  there  was  a  litter  of  whining 
puppies,  and  directly  in  the  center  the  quarter  of  a 
seal,  which  the  third  woman  was  cutting  up  in  bits 
and  tossing  into  the  pots  which  hung  above  the 
smoking  lamps. 

Curiosity  satisfied,  we  were  glad  enough  to  get  out 
into  the  open  air  again,  and  to  look  about  a  little. 


86  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

The  tent  was  Sipsu's  summer  residence,  and  was 
composed  of  seal-skins,  sewed  together  and  thrown 
over  a  rude  frame  made  of  wood  and  bone,  many 
pieces  being  lashed  one  to  the  other  in  a  cunning  way. 
Near  by  was  his  residence  for  the  winter.  This  was 
simply  a  low  flat  hut  built  of  stones  and  turf,  and 
was  evidently  thought  to  be  a  great  affair  by  its 
savage  proprietor,  but  it  did  not  possess  sufficient 
attraction  to  tempt  either  of  us  within  the  entrance, 
where  we  should  have  been  compelled  to  stoop  very 
low,  or  crawl  ten  feet  on  our  hands  and  knees  be- 
fore reaching  the  doorway. 

Passing  this  hut,  we  went  on  to  a  little  lake  of 
melted  snow  around  which  grew  a  fringe  of  moss 
and  grass.  Some  snipe  were  flying  about,  which  we 
were  quick  to  bag,  and  we  plucked  some  bright  little 
flowers,  which  were  growing  there  in  a  very  doleful 
sort  of  way,  and  were  seemingly  unhappy.  I 
thought  they  looked  up  into  my  face  appealingly, 
but  when  I  stuck  them  in  my  buttonhole  they  did 
not  seem  grateful,  for  they  wilted  away  immedi- 
ately. 

There  was  no  need  to  wander  farther,  for  there 
was  nothing  more  to  see — a  mass  of  rough  and 
rugged  rocks  as  bare  of  life  as  the  desert  sands.  But 


The  Savage.  87 

here,  in  spite  of  the  desolation,  the  savage  Sipsu 
lived  and  prospered,  and  here  he  was  at  home.  A 
strange  home  truly,  on  a  little  rocky  island  in  a  wil- 
derness of  icebergs,  and  within  the  sound  of  their 
everlasting  cannonade.  Great  icebergs  towered  above 
the  island  on  every  side,  as  we  could  see  when  the 
fog  had  lifted,  and  great  heaps  of  ice  were  piled 
along  the  beach.  Yet  myriads  of  birds  were  flying 
through  the  air,  and  seals  in  any  number  were  sport- 
ing in  the  sea.  It  was  not  difficult  to  see  whence 
the  savage  Sipsu  obtained  each  day  his  daily  food. 
Nor  was  it  difficult  to  make  out,  when  looking  at  the 
sterile  land,  that  his  food  was  wholly  animal.  But 
of  this  his  supplies  were  plentiful,  as  was  shown  on 
every  hand.  I  asked  him  if  he  never  came  to 
want  ? 

"  Never. " 

"  Did  he  always  have  everything  he  needed  ?  " 

"Always." 

"  What  was  the  food  he  most  relied  upon  ? " 

"  Seals." 

"  The  skins  of  what  animals  for  clothes  ? " 

"  Seals." 

"  No  others  ? " 

"  Bears  and  foxes." 


88  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

"  No  more  ?  " 

"  Sometimes  birds." 

The  savage  seemed  indisposed  to  talk,  but  he 
would  answer,  so  I  kept  up  a  fusillade  of  questions, 
determined  if  I  could  to  draw  him  out. 

Why  did  he  live  upon  this  rocky  island  away  up 
here  among  the  icebergs  ? 

"  Because  he  liked  to." 

This  might  well  have  posed  a  modest  man,  but  I 
was  not  to  be  baffled  thus. 

Why  did  he  not  go  down  where  Doctor  Molke 
lived  ? 

"Among  the  Christian  folks?"  asked  Sipsu,  and 
he  grinned  a  horrid  grin. 

"  Yes,  of  course." 

"  I  hate  them."" 

"  What,  Doctor  Molke  here,  and  all  ?  " 

"  No,  not  him,  but  all  the  rest  of  them,"  and  he 
laughed  a  savage  laugh,  as  if  there  was  a  mental 
reservation  covering  Doctor  Molke. 

I  could  get  but  little  out  of  him,  but  by  keeping 
up  the  questions  I  found  (at  least  that  was  what  he 
told  me)  that  he  would  not  go  down  to  where  Doc- 
tor Molke  lived,  because  if  he  did  he  would  be 
obliged  to  do  what  the  missionary  bade  him,  which 


The  Savage,  89 

he  would  never  do,  for  if  he  did  he  would  be  "  as 
poor,"  he  said,  "  as  all  the  rest  of  them." 

But  was  he  not  poor  here  ? 

No,  who  ever  said  he  was  ?  He  always  had  plenty 
to  eat  and  plenty  to  wear.  There  was  never  want 
in  hut  or  tent  for  anything,  and  nobody  ever  came 
there  and  went  away  hungry. 

"  Do  you  think  him  a  case  for  conversion  ? " 
asked  the  Doctor  laughing. 

I  had  to  own  that  I  thought  the  man  was  fixed  in 
a  faith  not  easily  shaken.  His  theory  of  life  was 
deeply  rooted,  and  he  had  clearly  no  doubt  what- 
ever that  he  had  done  his  part  when  he  kept 
his  family  well  fed  and  clothed,  and  had  a  good 
supply  of  food  laid  up  against  an  evil  day,  with 
blubber  enough  to  wash  it  down,  and  to  keep  his 
lamps  well  going  in  the  long  dark  winter,  and,  when 
besides  keeping  himself  and  family  in  comfort,  he 
could  also  give  to  any  weary  hunter  who  might  pass 
that  way,  food  and  shelter. 

"  One  of  your  friends,  I  think  you  told  me,"  said 
I  to  the  Doctor  as  we  walked  down  towards  the 
boat. 

"  Rather  a  sorry  one,  you  think  ? " 

"  Each  to  his  taste  ;  but  I  should  hardly  suppose 


QO  Pictures  of  Arctic   'I ravel. 

the  savage  would  quickly  forget  that  business  in  the 
fog,  or  be  inclined  to  love  you  very  deeply,  if  such 
are  your  approaches  to  his  heart." 

"  Ah  !  "  replied  the  Doctor,  "  he  knows  me  of 
old,  and,  if  he  does  not  love  me  very  deeply,  he  has 
a  wholesome  fear  of  me,  which  is,  perhaps,  as  well. 
Yet,  after  all,  he  has  befriended  me,  and  would 
serve  me  now,  though,  in  truth  he  has  little  cause  to 
love  me,  and  I  really  cannot  help  liking  the  fellow 
after  a  fashion.  He  is  the  most  perfect  type  of  his 
race  that  I  have  met  with,  and  it  is  always  some- 
thing at  least  to  get  hold  of  a  man  with  real  charac- 
ter." 

"  Certainly,  whether  good  or  bad." 

"Well,"  continued  the  Doctor,  " there  is  not 
much  of  the  good  according  to  our  civilized  notions 
in  this  savage  Sipsu.  He  has  all  the  savage  virtues, 
if  you  know  what  they  are,  as  well  as  savage  resent- 
ment. It  so  happens  that  I  am  the  only  man  who 
can  do  anything  with  him,  and  the  only  white  man 
for  whom  he  manifests  the  least  attachment." 

"  I  should  not  think,"  said  I,  "  that  sending  balls 
about  his  head  as  you  did  to-day,  would  be  calcu- 
lated to  strengthen  it." 

The    Doctor    smiled    and   said   the    fellow   was 


The  Savage.  91 

rather  used  to  it.  "  Besides,  I  wanted  you  to  see 
him,  and  had  you  not,  the  journey  would  have  been 
rather  disappointing." 

"  What  was  his  business  in  the  fog  ? "  I  asked. 

"  That  is  what  I  should  like  to  know  myself  ; 
some  villainy,  you  may  be  sure.  In  such  a  fog  these 
people  will  never  stir  abroad  to  hunt  on  any  pre- 
text ;  for  they  are  sure  to  lose  their  way.  They 
cannot  find  the  game,  and  are  always  in  needless 
danger.  However,  this  savage  is  an  exception,  for 
he  finds  his  way  through  a  fog  in  a  most  marvelous 
manner,  with  the  instinct  of  the  sleuth-hound  on  the 
scent." 

By  the  time  the  Doctor  had  finished  this  not  very 
flattering  account  of  his  friend,  we  had  reached  our 
landing-place,  where  Adam  had  found  a  patch  of 
grass,  and  pitched  our  tent  and  cooked  a  supper  (or 
dinner,  or  breakfast,  whatever  it  might  be,  for  the 
sun  being  always  up,  we  gave  no  thought  to  the 
time  of  day),  and  had  ransacked  Sophy's  well-stored 
locker  and  spread  all  the  eatables  and  drinkables 
and  smokables  upon  a  huge  flat  rock  near  by.  And 
to  these  things  we  did  as  one  may  well  suppose,  full  • 
and  ample  justice. 

Supper  over,  we  crept  into  the  tent  and  stowed 


92  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

ourselves  away  in  the  furs  we  had  brought  with  us, 
and  undisturbed  by  the  ceaseless  roar  of  the  crum- 
bling ice  on  every  side,  or  by  the  damp  and  chilly  fog, 
slept  soundly.  But,  before  I  fell  asleep,  I  could 
not  but  reflect  how  strange  it  was  that  any  human 
being  should,  from  choice,  live  in  such  a  desert  home ; 
and  as  I  thought  of  my  companion  in  the  tent,  and 
remembered  my  surprise  at  seeing  him  first  in  the 
lonely  spot  he  had  chosen  for  his  residence,  and  then 
recalled  what  I  had  seen  of  the  strange  relation  ex- 
isting between  these  two  men,  the  one  a  type  of 
everything  refined.  the  other,  a  true  savage,  both 
alone  in  solitary  places,  with  all  the  evidences  about 
them  of  their  status  in  the  social  scale,  each  in  his 
way,  it  seemed  to  me  that  I  had  come  into  a  very 
land  of  wonders,  and  that  they  would  never  cease. 


III. 


SNOW    AND    ICE 


NATURE  !  great  parent !  whose  unceasing  hand 
Rolls  round  the  seasons  of  the  changeful  year, 
How  mighty,  how  majestic  are  thy  works  ! 
With  what  a  pleasing  dread  they  swell  the  soul ! 
That  sees  astonished  !  and  astonished  sings  ! 

THOMSON'S  SEASONS, 


III. 

SNOW   AND   ICE. 

THE  dense  fog  that  had  overspread  the  sea  lifted 
in  the  early  morning  under  the  warm  influence  of 
the  sun.  Near  by  the  camp  there  was  a  cliff  to 
which  I  quickly  made  my  way  alone. 

The  view  was  grand  beyond  description.  No 
feeble  words  of  mine  could  ever  bring  to  any  other 
person's  mind  more  than  the  most  faint  conception 
of  the  splendors  of  that  morning  scene.  To  the 
east  rose  the  mighty  cliffs  of  the  Greenland  coast, 
while  far  away  beyond — far  as  the  eye  could  wan- 
der— rose  mountain  after  mountain  canopied  with 
snow  and  ice  ;  while  all  around,  dark  rocky  islands, 
intermingled  with  towering  icebergs,  dotted  the  sil- 
very water.  Far  down  the  fiord  a  vast  glacier  came 
trailing  to  the  sea. 

Ah,  that  glacier  !  what  a  tale  it  had  to  tell !  The 

95 


96  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

earth  and  sea  were  full  of  it: — but  more  than  that, 
the  air — the  air  which  there,  as  everywhere,  governs 
whatever  happens  to  mankind  for  help  or  harm — 
the  air  that  dispenses  heat  and  cold,  drought  and 
moisture  over  all  the  world,  in  sunshine  and  in 
storm,  in  cold  and  heat,  throughout  the  year — the 
air  that  wafts  to  one  sweet  perfumes,  to  another 
noxious  vapors  —  the  air  that  brings  pestilence  or 
health  to  suit  its  own  caprice — the  air  that  blights 
the  strong  and  invigorates  the  feeble,  that  depresses 
and  revives  the  spirits,  that  admits  the  sun  and 
keeps  the  sun  away — the  air  that,  everywhere  in- 
visible, is  yet  a  sponge,  for  does  it  not  soak  up  the 
waters  and  scatter  them  again  to  all  the  quarters 
of  the  globe  !  Yet  while  that  which  it  absorbs  is 
composed  of  infinitesimal  particles,  that  which  it 
scatters  is  very  tangible  in  its  shape  ;  for  when  too 
highly  charged,  it  gathers,  as  it  were,  its  hot  and 
cold  extremes  together,  rolls  up  a  cloud  and  flings 
abroad  the  rains  and  snows.  This  it  repeats  again 
and  again,  as  if  in  playful  exhibition  of  its  strength 
and  power. 

Thus  may  a  particle  of  water,  perhaps  a  dewdrop 
from  some  tropic  leaf,  be  transported  to  the  Arctic 
regions,  or  to  a  mountain  so  lofty  that  it  has  an 


Snow  and  Ice.  97 

Arctic  climate.  Here  the  air  drops  it  as  a  snow- 
flake.  If  now  touched  by  a  warm  solar  ray  before 
the  air  can  again  take  it  up  in  vapor,  it  becomes  a 
globule  of  water.  Should  the  air  then  grow  cold 
and  spiteful,  the  globule  of  water  thus  formed  from 
the  snow-flake,  is  hardened  into  a  crystal,  and  is 
bound  fast  for  untold  ages. 

Thus  begins  the  ice-sea  of  the  mountains  ; 

From  the  ice-sea  comes  the  ice-stream  ; 

From  the  ice-stream  comes  the  iceberg. 

The  ice-sea  we  commonly  called  the  mer  de  glace, 
borrowing  from  the  French  : 

The  ice-stream,  borrowing  from  the  same  quarter, 
we  call  a  glacier  : 

Iceberg  is  from  the  Dutch,  and  signifies  ice-moun- 
tain. 

Heat  and  cold  are,  as  everybody  knows,  merely 
relative  terms  ;  yet  each  in  its  way  creates  convul- 
sions. With  the  negative  condition  as  with  the  posi- 
tive, the  thermometer  is  the  test  of  natural  force. 

The  greatest  heat  of  the  earth  is  presumably  at 
its  center  ;  the  greatest  cold  is  at  its  extremities  ; 
that  is  to  say,  the  mountain  tops.  The  internal  heat 
produces  the  volcano  and  the  earthquake  :  the  ex- 
ternal cold  produces,  as  we  have  seen,  the  iceberg 
5 


98  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

and  it  likewise  produces  the  ice-field.  This  latter, 
however,  belongs  to  the  ocean,  or  to  arms  of  the 
ocean,  as  Baffin's  Bay,  where  it  is  formed  in  contact 
with  the  land.  It  makes  the  ice-barrier,  or  ice-pack, 
or  ice-belt,  as  it  is  indifferently  called,  of  the  Arctic 
waters,  and  is  the  pest  of  the  navigator.  It  blocks 
up  all  the  gateways  to  the  Polar  Basin,  and  has,  thus 
far,  kept  the  North  Pole  of  the  earth  sacred  from 
invasion.  Hence  man  has  wooed  the  Polar  Sea  in 
vain.  The  ice-field  forms  an  unbroken  girdle  about 
the  chaste  Queen  of  Oceans,  and  he  is  told,  "  Thus 
far,  and  no  farther." 

The  iceberg  is  very  different  from  the  ice-field. 
Hundreds  of  them  may  be  seen  at  one  time,  but 
they  are  all  separate  one  from  the  other.  The 
name,  signifying,  as  we  have  seen,  ice-mountain,  dis- 
tinguishes it  conspicuously  from  ice-field.  This 
latter  is  salt  and  flat ;  the  former  is  fresh  and  lofty. 

I  have  said  that  the  ice-sea  begins  with  the 
snow-flake.  Its  growth  is  from  an  infinite  number 
of  sno.w-flakes,  falling  in  annual  layers,  and  con- 
verted into  successive  layers  of  ice.  Thus  formed 
upon  the  land,  the  iceberg  is  therefore,  in  the  sea,  a 
vagrant. 

Its  birth   is   the   "convulsion"   of  cold,  as  the 


Snozu  and  Ice.  99 

earthquake  is  of  heat ;  and  it  is  difficult  to  say 
which  is  the  most  sublime  and  startling — the  birth 
of  an  iceberg  or  an  earthquake  shock. 

"  Glacier,"  as  we  have  also  seen,  is  the  general 
name  we  apply  to  the  whole  formation  which  finally 
results  in  the  iceberg.  These  form  upon  all  the 
lofty  mountain  chains  of  the  earth  having  a  certain 
geological  character.  It  is  even  supposed  by  many 
philosophers,  and  among  the  number  the  late  emi- 
nent Professor  Agassiz,  that  many  parts  of  the  earth 
now  fertile  and  inhabited  were  once  covered  with 
ice.  They  have  gone  so  far  even  as  to  add  "  gla- 
cial period  "  to  geological  nomenclature. 

At  the  present  time,  however,  glaciers  are  con- 
fined to  the  lands  of  the  Arctic  and  Antarctic 
regions  and  the  lofty  mountain  chains,  as,  for  in- 
stance, the  Alps,  the  Andes,  and  the  Himalayas. 

No  part  of  the  Arctic  regions  presents  any  exten- 
sive or  magnificent  display  of  glaciers  except 
Greenland.  In  this  respect  it  is  truly  a  typical 
land,  and  might  well  be  called  the  Arctic  continent. 
In  fact,  it  is  a  vast  reservoir  of  ice,  being  almost 
wholly  covered  with  it.  Nothing  but  the  great 
headlands  between  the  fiords  (that  is  to  say,  the 
deep  bays)  and  the  off-lying  islands  escape.  This 


ioo  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

covering  is  many  hundreds  of  feet  in  average  thick- 
ness, and  to  the  eye  it  presents  one  vast  illimitable 
waste  of  whiteness — a  gelid  cloak — an  ice-sea — a 
mer  de  glace. 

This  is  the  last  place  in  all  the  world  where  one 
would  expect  to  meet  with  such  a  phenomenon,  if 
there  were  any  meaning  in  a  name.  Greenland, 
with  its  pleasant-sounding  title,  has  come  to  be 
regarded  as  the  symbol  of  desolation.  It  ought  to 
have  been  Snowland  or  Frostland.  Yet,  after  all, 
there  was  meaning  in  it  to  Eric,  the  Icelander,  who 
was  its  discoverer.  He  found  some  valleys  and 
slopes  of  the  headland,  where  he  first  stepped 
ashore,  clothed  with  verdure.  Here  a  great  herd  of 
curious  reindeer,  who  had  never  before  seen  human 
beings,  were  browsing,  and  down  they  came,  all 
unsuspicious  ot  harm,  to  look  at  Eric  and  his  fol- 
lowers. This  was  but  a  little  way  north  and  west 
of  Cape  Farewell,  near  what  is  now  Julianashaab. 

Eric  wanted  credit  for  this  discovery  of  a  new 
world,  and  he  wanted  likewise  colonists.  So  he 
named  it  Greenland,  the  more  conspicuously  to 
distinguish  it  from  Iceland,  whence  he  came. 

The  name  took  with  the  Icelanders  amazingly, 
producing  much  the  same  effect  upon  their  minds 


Snow  and  Ice.  101 

that  "  Valley  of  Eden"  did  upon  the  mind  of  Mar- 
tin Chuzzlewit.  The  result,  however,  on  the  whole, 
was  better.  It  gave  Eric  twenty-five  shiploads  of 
colonists,  a  full  pardon  for  sundry  crimes,  and  much 
prosperity.  It  gave  one  of  his  sons  (Lief,  the 
Lucky)  an  opportunity  to  discover  America,  which 
feat  was  performed  in  the  year  1001.  It  brought, 
also,  fresh  treasures  to  the  exchequer  of  Iceland, 
and,  in  time,  it  furnished  beef  cattle  for  the  private 
table  of  the  King  of  Norway. 

But  the  field  of  the  colonists  was  circumscribed. 
Still  they  and  their  descendants  flourished  there  for 
three  hundred  years  and  more.  They  built  churches 
and  a  cathedral,  and  cultivated  farms,  and  lived  in 
peace  and  plenty,  by  the  sea.  In  the  valleys  alone 
and  in  those  only  which  had  a  southerly  exposure, 
was  there  any  life.  Behind  and  above  them,  all 
was  sterility — rugged  cliffs  of  immense  height,  and 
mountain  wastes  of  ice  and  snow. 

I  have  climbed  those  cliffs,  and  traveled  upon 
those  mountain  wastes — upon  the  mer  de  glace,  or 
ice-sea,  reaching  as  far  inland  as  eighty  miles,  and 
as  far  above  the  level  of  the  sea  as  five  thousand 
feet. 

There  it  was  almost  as  level  as  the  ocean  in  a 


IO2  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

calm,  and  as  unbroken  ;  as  void  of  life  as  the  des- 
ert of  Sahara,  and  more  dreary  to  look  upon.  The 
temperature  was  thirty- four  degrees  below  zero,  and 
had  steadily  fallen  to  that  degree  as  we  climbed  up 
higher  and  higher,  by  the  scarcely  perceptible  ac- 
clivity. Then  we  were  suddenly  set  upon  by  a 
tempest.  Nothing  could  be  more  terrible  except 
a  furnace  blast.  The  drifting  snow,  which  came 
whirling  along  the  icy  plain,  was  like  the  sand  clouds 
of  the  desert,  which  so  often  overwhelm  travelers. 
There  was  no  chance  for  life  except  in  flight.  With 
our  backs  to  the  wind,  we  descended  as  rapidly  as 
possible  to  the  level  of  the  sea,  where  the  tempera- 
ture was  zero,  at  which  degree  of  cold  life  is  sup- 
ported without  inconvenience.  My  companions  were 
then  all  unaccustomed  to  such  exposure  ;  yet,  while 
all  were  at  first  somewhat  alarmed,  none  were,  in  the 
end,  seriously  touched  by  the  frost. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  inflict  upon  a  man  greater 
torture  than  to  expose  him  to  such  a  storm.  The 
effect,  after  a  time,  is  to  make  life  undesirable — 
alarm  first,  then  pain,  then  lack  of  perception. 
When  one  dies  from  freezing,  it  is  the  brain  which, 
in  effect,  first  surfers  eclipse.  The  cold  has  not 
solidified  it,  that  is  true,  but  has  made  it  torpid — 


Snow  and  Ice.  103 

like  certain  animals  in  the  winter  time,  with  which 
one  may  do  anything  and  they  will  not  resist,  being 
quite  incapable  of  receiving  an  impression.  One  of 
the  men  said,  "  I  cannot  go  any  farther ;  I  do  not 
want  to  ;  I  am  sleepy  ;  I  cannot  walk."  Another 
said,  "  I  am  no  longer  cold  ;  I  am  quite  warm  again  ; 
shall  we  not  camp  ? "  Then  I  knew  there  was  the 
greater  need  to  hurry  on,  if  we  would  not  all  be  de- 
stroyed by  the  fearful  wind. 

This  digression  may  perhaps  the  more  readily 
enable  the  reader  to  understand  the  nature  of  this 
Greenland  ice-sea. 

The  whole  continent  is,  perhaps,  1,200  miles  long, 
by,  say,  600  broad.  This  gives  720,000  square  miles 
of  superficial  area,  the  greater  part  of  which  is  this 
ice-sea.  Multiply  this  by  the  tenth  of  a  mile,  which 
may  be  taken  as  the  fair  average  depth  of  the  moun- 
tain ice,  and  we  have  piled  up  on  Greenland  72,000 
cubical  miles  of  solid  ice — a  result  which  seems 
almost  fabulous.  And  all  this,  as  we  have  seen,  is 
composed  of  successive  layers  of  hardened  snow, 
which  is  still  increasing  year  by  year,  and  century 
by  century  ;  and  while  thus  accumulating,  the  cli- 
mate has  been  steadily  growing  colder.  This  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that,  from  the  tenth  to  the  four- 


IO4  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

teenth  century,  people  lived  in  Greenland  quite 
comfortably,  while  they  now  live  there  quite  misera- 
bly— a  change  which  is  only  to  be  accounted  for, 
independent  of  all  astronomical  influences,  by  the 
circumstance  that  the  sea,  as  well  as  the  land,  has 
more  and  more  ice  gathering  upon  it  from  year  to 
year. 

Now,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind,  that  an  ice-sea, 
such  as  that  of  Greenland,  is  not  a  stationary  mass, 
like  rock,  but  is  a  moving  mass,  like  water.  What 
is  it  but  hardened  water — water  crystallized  ? 

Take  the  better  known  glaciers  of  the  Alps  by 
way  of  illustration.  There  we  find  a  mer  de  glace 
from  which  are  many  branches  extending  down  the 
valleys  on  every  side.  These  are  called  glaciers. 
They  are  ice -sir earns,  for  they  flow  downward 
through  the  valleys,  and  are  the  means  by  which 
the  mer  de  glace,  or  ice-sea,  discharges  itself,  thus 
preventing  an  accumulation  which  would,  but  for 
these  ice-streams,  become  interminable.  It  is  esti- 
mated that  tne  mountain -snows  of  the  Alps  would 
gather  there  at  the  rate  of  four  thousand  feet  in  a 
thousand  years.  This  accumulation  is,  however, 
prevented  by  natural  law  ;  for  the  Creator,  in  the 
all-wise  dispensation  of  His  power,  has  made  ice 


Snow  and  Ice. .  105 

ductile,  as  if  it  were  fluid.  Hence  it  flows,  when 
on  an  inclined  plane,  just  as  water  flows,  only,  of 
course,  slower.  An  ice-stream  is,  therefore,  in  effect, 
a  river,  and  drains  the  mountain-ice  of  the  Alps 
down  to  the  sea,  as  rivers  drain  the  rains  which  fall 
in  other  places.  The  Alpine  ice-streams  become, 
however,  actual  rivers  in  the  end  ;  for,  as  they  flow 
down  the  valleys  in  a  continuous  stream  from  the 
mer  de  glace,  the  end  reaches  the  base  of  the  moun- 
tains, where  the  temperature  becomes  comparatively 
warm,  and  the  end  of  the  ice-stream  is  steadily 
melted  off,  as  a  candle  held  to  the  fire. 

The  water  thus  formed  completes  the  circuit  to 
the  sea  as  a  real  river,  and  not  an  ice-river,  the  only 
difference,  however,  in  the  flow  and  the  law  of  flow 
being  one  of  rate. 

The  ice  molds  itself  to  its  bed,  as  the  river  does. 
When  the  bed  is  wide,  it  expands  ;  when  the  bed  is 
narrow,  it  contracts  and  thickens  ;  when  the  descent 
is  slight,  it  deepens  ;  when  rapid,  it  hurries  along, 
and  becomes  shoal.  An  ice-stream,  like  a  river,  has 
therefore  its  cascades,  its  rapids,  its  broad  lagoons 
(so  to  speak),  and  its  smooth,  steady,  even-flowing 
places.  It  carries  rocks  along  with  it  upon  its  sur- 
face, which  have  been  hurled  down  upon  it  from 
5* 


io6  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

neighboring  cliffs  by  the  frost,  as  the  river  carries 
sticks  of  wood,  leaves,  and  other  light  materials. 

Greenland  is  only  the  Alps  many  times  magni- 
fied— not  in  altitude,  but  in  extent  of  surface  and 
the  quantity  of  mountain-ice  which  it  has  accumu- 
lated. The  whole  interior  of  that  continent,  as  we 
have  seen,  is,  in  effect,  covered  with  an  ice-sea,  from 
which  flow  ice-streams  on  either  side  down  through 
the  valleys. 

There  is,  however,  one  great  point  of  difference 
between  the  Alpine  ice-stream,  or  glacier,  and  the 
Greenland  ice-stream.  While  the  end  of  an  Alpine 
ice-stream  melts  in  the  warm  air,  at  a  lower  level 
than  that  in  which  it  was  formed,  the  Greenland  ice- 
stream,  on  the  other  hand,  meets  no  such  fate.  The 
whole  of  Greenland,  from  the  sea  upward  to  the 
mountain-tops,  has  too  low  a  temperature  for  that. 
Hence  the  ice-streams  pour  all  the  way  down  to  the 
sea,  which  they  usually  reach  at  the  head  of  the 
deep  fiords.  Thus  does  the  sea  take  the  place  of 
the  air  in  the  melting  process.  But  not  precisely  in 
the  same  manner,  for  the  sea  first  breaks  off  a  mass 
from  the  end  of  the  Greenland  ice-stream,  and  then 
gradually  melts  it,  as  it  floats  south  with  the  current. 

This  mass  is  the  iceberg. 


Snow  and  Ice.  107 

Both  these  processes,  however,  have  in  the  end 
the  same  result — the  final  return  of  the  mountain- 
snows  to  their  natural  home  in  the  ocean. 

The  flow  of  an  ice-stream  is,  unlike  that  of  a 
river,  imperceptible  to  the  eye  ;  but  its  rate  can  be 
measured.  The  method  is  simple  enough  :  You 
mount  to  the  surface  of  the  glacier,  and  stake  off  a 
base-line  upon  it,  either  in  its  axis  or  parallel  with 
its  axis.  You  then  set  up  your  theodolite  at  one 
end  of  the  base-line,  and  connect  the  base-line  by 
angles  with  some  fixed  object  on  the  land  which 
borders  the  glacier,  like  the  banks  of  a  river,  to  left 
and  right.  You  go  then  to  the  other  end  of  the 
base-line,  and  repeat  the  process.  After,  say,  a 
week,  or  a  month,  and  as  many  more  times  as  you 
may  find  necessary,  you  go  through  this  same  oper- 
ation of  setting  up  your  theodolite  and  measuring 
the  angles.  Then  a  very  simple  trigonometrical 
computation  reveals  the  fact  that  the  ice-stream  is 
carrying  your  base-line  along  with  it  down  the  val- 
ley, leaving  the  fixed  objects  on  the  banks  behind. 
It  is  almos*  as  if  you  made  a  base-line  on  a  long 
raft,  and  surveyed  a  river's  banks  as  you  floated 
down  the  river  with  the  current. 

To  further  prove  the  resemblance  of  an  ice-stream 


io8  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

to  a  river,  you  plant  a  line  of  stakes  across  it,  from 
side  to  side,  each,  say,  twenty  fathoms  from  the 
other.  Observe  your  stakes  closely,  and,  after  a 
time,  your  straight  line  has  become  a  curve.  This 
curve  steadily  increases.  The  middle  of  the  glacier 
is  flowing  more  rapidly  than  the  sides.  So,  in  like 
manner,  does  the  top  flow  more  rapidly  than  the 
bottom. 

These  measurements  I  have  often  made  ;  once  on 
an  ice-stream  in  North  Greenland.  The  tempera- 
ture was  below  zero,  and  it  was  cheerless  work 
enough.  We  reached  the  top  of  the  glacier  with 
much  difficulty,  cutting  steps  with  an  axe.  Then 
we  came  upon  unfathomable  cracks,  which  made 
the  walking  dangerous  as  the  view  was  dreary. 
There  was  a  strong  wind  howling  down  from  the 
ice-sea,  bringing  with  it  sharp,  cutting  snow-drift. 
The  brass  instrument  froze  the  eye-lids,  and  had  to 
be  covered  with  buckskin.  The  moisture  of  the 
breath  condensed  upon  the  lenses,  and  the  observer 
had  to  breathe  through  a  tube.  The  men  who  car- 
ried the  chain  scorched  their  fingers  with  the  cold 
metal.  Under  these  circumstances,  science  be- 
comes a  species  of  martyrdom.  Yet  we  completed 
our  survey,,  and  discovered  the  ice-stream  to  be  flow- 


Snow  and  Ice.  109 

ing  toward  the  ocean  at  the  rate  of  four  inches  a 
day. 

Many  of  the  Greenland  ice-streams  are  of  ?maz- 
ing  extent.  There  is  one  sixty  miles  wide.  Its 
front  is  in  the  water,  and  it  is  washed  by  the  waves 
like  any  other  coast-line  ;  for  it  is  really  a  coast-line 
— an  ice  coast-line.  The  cliffs  of  the  land  on  either 
side  of  it  are  very  lofty — from  five  hundred  to  a 
thousand  feet.  These  ice-cliffs  are  from  fifty  to 
three  hundred  feet  in  altitude.  Below  the  surface 
of  the  water,  of  course,  this  wall  extends  downward, 
resting  on  the  bottom  of  the  sea  like  all  others.  This 
great  ice-stream  is  known  as  the  Humboldt  Glacier, 
and  is  at  the  head  of  Smith  Sound,  latitude  79°. 

There  is  another  Greenland  ice-stream  that  is 
twenty  miles  wide  ;  others  that  are  ten,  and  five, 
and  indeed  of  any  width,  down  to  the  quarter  of  a 
mile  or  even  less.  Some  of  them  have  been  pouring 
into  the  sea  for  ages  ;  some  have  not  yet  reached 
the  sea,  but  are  steadily  nearing  it,  like  a  flood  com- 
ing down  a  valley  from  a  broken  dam.  Not  noise- 
lessly, however,  for  the  flow  of  an  ice-stream  is  at- 
tended with  continual  crackings  and  breakings,  and 
tumbling  of  avalanches,  which  add  greatly  to  its 
sublimity,  and  give  it  an  aspect  of  terror.  In  fact 


HO  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

this  whole  Arctic  continent  is  full  of  startling  won- 
ders and  novelties  of  nature,  and  its  history  is  so 
replete  with  violent  commotions,  from  the  time  when 
it  was  a  volcanic  nest  to  the  present,  that  it  is  well 
worthy  of  more  consideration  than  it  has  ever  yet 
received  from  the  learned,  or  the  curious,  or  even 
the  adventurous.  I  had  once  occasion  to  visit  a 
famous  glacier  of  the  Greenland  coast.  It  lies  at  the 
head  of  a  fiord  which  is  fifty  miles  long,  measured 
from  the  outer  coast  line,  and  is  from  ten  to  fifteen 
miles  wide  ;  in  one  place  it  is  twenty.  It  is  dotted 
here  and  there  by  little  rocky  islands,  and  is  lined 
on  either  side  by  dark  reddish-bnr.vn  cliffs  of  great 
height  and  of  forbidding  aspect.  The  color  of  the 
rocks  gives  the  native  name  to  the  fiord.  Ank-pad- 
lar-tok,  they  call  it — signifying  "  The  place  of  the 
Red  Rocks."  The  glacier  at  the  end  of  it  takes  its 
name  from  the  fiord. 

This  fiord  is  in  its  general  appearance  like  all  the 
other  deep  inlets  which  give  such  peculiar  character 
to  the  outline  of  Greenland.  They  are,  as  it  were, 
deep  cuts  in  the  land.  The  coasts  are  tortuous ; 
they  are  very  barren  ;  the  water  is  very  deep  ;  the 
fiord  is  encumbered  with  ice  ;  it  is  inhabited  by 
bears  and  seals,  and  in  the  summer  time  the  islands 


Snow  and  Ice.  1 1 1 

swarm  with  different  varieties  of  water-fowl — chiefly 
gulls,  ducks,  geese,  and  auks,  which  have  come 
there  from  the  south,  to  breed  in  the  perpetual 
sunshine  of  the  summer,  and  to  feed  upon  the  in- 
finite varieties  and  inexhaustible  supply  of  shrimps 
and  other  minute  inhabitants  of  the  chill  Arctic 
waters. 

The  fiord  of  Auk-pad-lar-tok  lies  immediately 
north  of  Upernavik,  in  latitude  73°.  In  fact  Uper- 
navik  stands  upon  an  island  at  the  southern  horn  of 
the  fiord,  in  latitude  72°  40';  and  it  is  not  only  the 
most  northern  of  the  Danish  colonies  in  Greenland, 
but  it  is  the  most  northern  Christian  settlement  on 
the  globe.  One  would  think  it  the  most  northern 
border  of  human  occupation ;  but  it  is  only  the 
dilute  margin  of  civilized  existence  ;  for  I  have  dis- 
covered savages  much  farther  north — traces  of  them 
within  five  hundred  miles  of  the  pole,  and  actual 
residents  within  seven  hundred.  These  people — 
the  Esquimaux — no  doubt  wandered  to  America 
from  Asia — crossing  Behring  Strait  into  Alaska  in 
canoes.  Moving  thence  eastward  along  the  north 
coast  of  America  (they  are  an  exclusively  coast 
people,  and  are  nowhere  tillers  of  the  soil),  they 
have  finally  reached  Greenland  in  the  same  man- 


112  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

ner  as  they  had  before  reached  America,  or  have 
crossed  over  on  the  ice. 

Upernavik  is  a  kind  of  polar  Long  Branch  (its 
name  signifying  "  Summer  Place,"  from  Upernak, 
"  summer,"  and  navik,  "  place  "),  being,  during  the 
summer  time,  a  great  resort  for  the  natives,  who 
flock  thither  for  no  discoverable  purpose  except  to 
make  themselves  and  others,  as  uncomfortable  as 
possible.  It  is  very  barren  and  desolate,  and  is 
much  exposed  to  the  sea. 

Having  brought  my  vessel  to  an  anchor  in  the 
little  harbor,  I  made  preparation  at  once  to  visit  Auk- 
fad-lar-tok  glacier  ;  and  I  was  soon  off  in  a  whale- 
boat  with  a  full  crew,  camp  equipage  enough  for 
any  number  of  days'  absence,  scientific  instruments 
for  any  amount  of  explorations,  and  guns  and  rifles 
enough  for  any  quantity  of  shooting.  These  latter 
were  indeed  most  important,  as  they  were  our  chief 
reliance  for  supplies.  The  birds,  as  I  have  said, 
were  very  numerous.  That  they  were  very  fishy  we 
had  long  since  ceased  to  remember — we  had  be- 
come so  used  to  them,  and  were  so  glad  to  get  them. 

We  were  two  days  in  reaching  our  destination, 
during  which  time  the  weather  was  fine,  the  tempera- 
ture ranging  at  about  60°.  The  sun  did  not  leave  us 


Snow  and  Ice.  1 1 3 

at  midnight,  and  altogether  it  was  rather  a  holiday 
excursion  than  a  "  hard  experience."  The  shooting 
could  not  be  excelled,  but  the  work  for  the  sailors 
was,  it  must  be  owned,  rather  severe.  The  fiord 
was  crowded  everywhere  with  ice  to  such  an  extent 
that  it  appeared  on  all  sides  of  us  as  if  covered  with 
a  canopy,  and  among  the  masses  we  were  compelled 
to  pick  a  devious  passage,  which  was  often  attended 
with  excessive  labor,  and  was  not  without  danger. 
First,  there  were  the  fields  of  ice,  large  and  small — 
some  very  thin  and  rotten,  others  thick  and  solid — 
which  sometimes,  by  completely  blocking  up  the 
way,  compelled  us  to  make  over  the  ice-field  a  sort 
of  portage — dragging  our  boat  and  carrying  our 
cargo.  Then  again  came  the  icebergs,  great  and 
little,  of  every  size,  from  a  hencoop  to  a  city,  and  of 
every  height,  from  almost  no  height  at  all  to  the 
dome  of  the  national  capitol.  Some  were  wall- 
sided  like  a  fort ;  some  were  rounded  like  a  huge 
pot  turned  upside  down  ;  some  had  spires  like  a 
church  ;  some  had  blue  and  green  caverns  in  their 
sides,  which  led  the  imagination  off  into  a  great 
glacial  mammoth  cave ;  no  two  were  alike,  and 
there  was  nothing  the  fancy  might  conjure  up  that 
did  not  take  shape  in  the  endless  blocks  of  glitter- 


H4  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

ing  crystal — a  dog  here,  a  bear  there,  a  bird  in  an- 
other place ;  then  a  Greek  temple  to  the  right,  a 
mosque  to  the  left ;  the  gable-end  of  a  country 
house  in  front,  an  unfinished  city  hall  behind,  and 
ruins  everywhere.  Being  for  the  most  part  transpar- 
ent, the  play  of  light  upon  them  was  very  wonderful ; 
being  angular,  they  dissolved  the  sun's  rays  ;  being 
glassy,  they  reflected  the  hues  of  the  clouds.  Fill- 
ing the  fiord  within  its  walls,  they  scattered  at  its 
mouth,  and  dotted  with  sparks  of  light  the  deep 
blue  waters  of  Baffin's  Bay. 

To  reach  the  end  of  the  fiord  we  required  a 
guide  ;  so,  agreeably  to  the  directions  of  the  Gov- 
ernor of  Upernavik,  we  hauled  in  to  a  tall  cliff, 
which  is  about  thirty  miles  up  the  fiord.  At  the 
base  of  this  cliff  we  find  a  narrow  ledge  of  rock,  and 
on  this  we  discover  a  rude  hut  overgrown  with  turf. 
Here  lives  the  man  we  seek — at  his  feet  the  sea, 
above  him  as  gloomy  a  wall  as  eye  ever  lighted  on, 
where  the  croaking  ravens  have  gathered  for  an 
evening  concert.  Great  numbers  of  wolfish-looking 
dogs  bay  a  deep-mouthed  defiance  rather  than  a  wel- 
come ;  that  is,  they  howl  it  as  we  approach  ;  while 
the  inevitable  odor  of  fish  gives  us  a  Greenland 
greeting. 


Snow  and  Ice.  115 

It  is  a  dreary  and  solitary  place  for  human  resi- 
dence ;  but,  for  all,  our  guide  (not  a  professional 
guide  as  you  find  in  other  countries,  but  a  simple 
seal-hunter)  is  a  cheerful  looking  man  as  he  meets 
us  at  the  beach.  He  is  flaxen  haired,  and  is  dressed 
partly  in  the  skins  of  wild  beasts,  and  partly  in 
clothes  of  European  fabrication.  He  is  a  Dane, 
and,  strange  to  say,  of  his  own  free  will  and  accord 
came  to  this  wild  and  solitary  place  some  five  and 
twenty  years  gone  by,  and  has  lived  there  happy  as 
a  clam  at  high  water  ever  since.  At  least  his  cheery, 
weather-beaten  face  makes  you  think  so.  His  name 
is  Philip. 

Philip's  history  has  not  been  a  peculiarly  event- 
ful one — hunting  and  fishing  year  in  and  year  out ; 
trading  what  he  does  not  need  for  home  consump- 
tion to  the  Governor  of  Upernavik,  and  receiving  in 
exchange  all  sorts  of  domestic  luxuries,  such  as 
coffee,  tea,  sugar,  and  tobacco,  which  his  family 
seem  to  know  well  how  to  dispose  of.  For  Philip 
has  a  family. 

On  his  way  into  the  fiord,  "  in  the  days  of  his 
youth,"  he  stopped  at  Upernavik  long  enough  to  fall 
in  love  ;  no  very  uncommon  thing  to  happen  to 
a  young  bachelor  of  high  or  low  degree,  at  any  time 


n6  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

or  in  any  place  ;  but  Philip's  Dulcinea  was  a  full- 
blown Esquimau,  with  high  cheek-bones,  and  jet- 
black  hair,  and  jet-black  eyes,  and  a  very  dark  com- 
plexion. "She  isn't  lazy,"  said  Philip,  growing 
sentimental,  "  and  she  has  been  a  good  wife  to  me, 
very  good  indeed."  I  did  not  inquire  whether  she 
had  been  converted  from  the  religion  of  her  people, 
but  suppose  so,  from  the  fact  that  she  had  taken  the 
first  great  step  toward  godliness,  according  to  St. 
Paul,  in  being  clean.  The  inside  of  her  hut  was 
polished  like  the  deck  of  a  man  of  war,  and  although 
there  was  but  one  room,  yet  this  was  partitioned 
off  into  a  number  of  stalls,  which  were  filled  half 
way  up  to  the  roof  with  what  looked  like  bags  of 
air ;  in  one  of  which,  under  the  firm  impression  that 
I  was  floating  in  space,  and  rolling  in  a  cloud,  I 
slept  (between  two  bags  of  eider-down,  as  it  proved) 
the  sleep  of  the  weary  man,  after  having  eaten  the 
meal  of  a  hungry  one  ;  the  meal  being  mainly  com- 
posed of  a  fine  salmon  freshly  caught  in  some 
neighboring  lake,  and  venison  from  a  neighboring 
valley. 

Philip's  wife  has  brought  into  the  world  a  numer- 
ous progeny.  Some  are  flaxen-haired  and  blue- 
eyed,  like  the  father  ;  others  black-eyed  and  black- 


Snow  and  Ice.  117 

haired,  like  the  mother  ;  and  they  are  of  all  sizes, 
from  a  babe  at  the  breast  to  a  full-grown  hunter. 
But  midway  in  the  series  is  a  phenomenon — a  bright 
girl  of  fifteen  summers,  very  fair,  with  eyes  of  the 
father  and  hair  of  the  mother — a  wild  flower,  truly, 
in  the  wilderness.  This  pretty  creature  is  to  be- 
come the  bride  of  a  savage  hunter  lately  converted 
and  baptized  Jens  by  the  missionary  at  Upernavik. 
And  so  once  more  is  a 

"  flower  born  to  blush  unseen, 
And  waste  its  sweetness  on  the  desert  air." 

But,  alas !  Christina  wears  seal-skin  trousers ; 
and  who  could  weave  a  romance  of  such  materials  ? 
and  so  I  let  her  pass  to  the  reader's  imagination. 

Leaving  the  good  wife  and  the  fair  Christina  and 
the  solitary  hut,  we  once  more  threaded  the  fiord 
over  the  dead  waters  and  among  the  shifting  ice 
that  was  grinding  noisily  with  the  tide. 

We  had  a  hard  pull  of  it,  and  at  length  were 
brought  to  a  stand  five  miles  from  the  end  of  the 
fiord.  We  tried  first  one  opening,  then  another, 
not  without  serious  danger  to  our  boat  ;  and  at 
length,  convinced  that  we  could  proceed  no  further 
on  account  of  the  closely-impacted  ice,  we  made 


1 1 8  Pictures  of  A  rctic  Travel. 

our  way  to  the  land,  drew  the  boat  up  on  the 
beach  so  far  that  it  was  perfectly  safe  from  any 
waves  which  the  crumbling  icebergs  might  set  in 
motion  ;  and  then,  after  a  good  rest,  we  mounted  a 
neighboring  hill  for  observation. 

To  reach  the  summit  we  find  to  be  no  easy  task, 
the  ascent  being  through  a  steep  gorge,  which  is 
filled  with  sharp  rocks  that  the  frosts  had  hurled 
down  from  the  cliffs  above.  But  at  last  we  come 
upon  a  tolerably  level  plain,  across  which  we  walk 
half  a  mile,  and  then  we  stand  upon  the  edge  of  a 
precipice  about  a  thousand  feet  high,  facing  the 
ice-encumbered  fiord  through  which  we  have  made 
our  way. 

Never  did  eye  of  man  light  upon  a  more  mar- 
velous spectacle.  Below  us  the  winding  fiord  with 
its  vast  forest  of  icebergs  glittering  there  in  wind- 
ing procession  between  the  dark  coasts  and  islands, 
made  darker  by  the  contrast.  There,  over  the  tops 
of  the  great  icebergs,  rose  the  opposite  wall  of  the 
fiord  to  a  great  altitude,  terminating  in  rounded 
bluffs  that  were  partially  covered  with  snow,  and 
these  blended  with  hills  that  rose  still  higher  and 
higher  in  the  distance,  and  these  again  into  great 
cones  of  spotless  whiteness,  leading  the  imagination 


and  Ice.  119 

away  in  the  pearly  distance  to  the  gates  of  some 
hitherto  undreamed-of  paradise. 

But  down  at  my  right  was  the  object  that  I  most 
rejoiced  in — the  phenomenon  which  I  had  come  to 
see — the  great  glacier  of  Auk-pad-lar-tok,  an  im- 
mense wall  of  white  and  blue  and  green,  crossing  the 
waters  from  shore  to  shore,  a  distance  of  about  ten 
miles.  Behind  this  wall,  like  the  snow-covered  roof 
of  a  house,  sloped  up  the  white  surface  of  the  ice- 
stream,  resting  in  the  valley  between  the  great  bluffs 
and  cliffs,  which  border  it  with  a  dark  and  dwin- 
dling line,  until  in  the  far  distance  this  inclined 
plane  has  carried  the  eye  up  to  the  altitude  of  the 
most  distant  and  lofty  mountains,  where  it  is  lost  in 
a  great  level  line  of  bluish  whiteness,  stretching  away 
to  the  east  and  north  and  south.  This  is  the  sur- 
face of  the  great  ice-sea — the  mer  de  glace. 

As  my  eye  lingered  upon  this  far- distant  line  of 
the  ice-sea — this  boundless  waste  of  accumulated 
snows — my  imagination  wandered  back  to  the  time 
when  the  great  ice-stream  before  me  first  emerged 
from  it,  when  the  valley  in  which  it  now  rests  was 
clothed  with  verdure,  when  sparrows  chirped  among 
the  branches  of  its  stunted  trees,  when  herds  of 
reindeer  browsed  upon  its  abundant  pastures,  and 


I2O  Pictures  of  Arctic   Travel. 

drank  from  a  stream  of  limpid  water  which  poured 
from  the  front  of  the  mer  de  glace — at  a  time  when 
the  climate  was  warmer  than  it  is  to-day.  Then  I 
fancied  myself  standing  where  I  am  standing  now 
(ages  and  ages  ago),  and  saw  the  ice-stream  first 
come  in  sight  far  up  the  winding  valley,  its  front 
hundreds  of  feet  high,  and  miles  across  ;  and  I 
fancied  myself  watching  the  icy  flood  twisting  and 
turning,  widening  and  narrowing,  sometimes  moving 
with  comparative  rapidity,  sometimes  very  slow, 
but  steadily,  year  by  year,  coming  toward  the  sea. 
I  see  it  swallowing  up  rock  and  pasture  ;  I  see  the 
deer  retire  farther  and  farther  down  the  valley  with 
each  returning  year  ;  I  see  the  hills  within  the 
valley  overwhelmed,  the  crystal  stream  pouring  over 
and  around  them  as  if  the  ice  were  soft  putty  ;  I 
hear  the  cracking  of  the  ice  as  the  strain  here  and 
there  becomes  too  great ;  and  I  hear  the  echoing 
sound  of  the  avalanche  of  ice  and  snow  crumbling 
from  its  front,  and  crashing  far  down  into  the  plain 
beneath.  All  this  seems  to  be  passing  before  me. 
I  watch  the  stream  until  the  front  of  it  has  reached 
the  sea.  But  here  it  does  not  stop.  The  bed  of 
the  sea  is  but  a  continuation  of  the  same  inclined 
plane  as  the  bed  of  the  valley,  and  its  onward  course 


Snow  and  Ice.  121 

is  continued.  It  presses  back  the  water  ;  it  makes 
now  a  coast  line  of  ice  where  there  had  been  a 
beach  ;  and  a  white  wall  stretches  across  the  fiord 
from  one  side  to  the  other.  As  it  flows  onward  it 
gets  into  deeper  and  deeper  water,  its  foot  now  rest- 
ing on  the  bottom  of  the  fiord.  Thus  the  icy  wall 
sinks  gradually  down,  as  it  moves  along,  and,  in 
course  of  time,  it  has  almost  gone  out  of  sight. 
Then  it  gets  beyond  its  depth. 

When  fresh  ice  floats  freely  in  salt  water,  there  is 
one-eighth  of  it  above  the  surface  to  seven-eighths 
below.  If  these  proportions  become  disturbed, 
then  the  buoyancy  of  the  water  will  lift  the  end  of 
the  ice-stream  up  until  it  reaches  its  natural  equilib- 
rium. But  for  a  long  time  the  continuity  of  the 
ice  is  not  interrupted,  so  great  is  its  depth  (many 
hundreds  of  feet),  so  great  is  its  width  (ten  miles). 
But  finally  it  is  forced  to  give  way.  A  crack  is 
opened.  It  widens.  A  fragment  is  detached.  It 
is  lifted  upwards  ;  and  now,  when  free,  it  bounds  to 
its  natural  floating  level,  and  while  the  loud  voice  of 
the  disruption  is  echoing  among  the  hills,  and 

"  Far  along  , 

From  peak  to  peak,  the  rolling  crags  among 
Leaps  the  live  thunder  " 
6 


122  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

of  its  making,  great  waves  which  it  has  stirred  to  life 
are  rolling  down  the  fiord,  while  the  enormous  frag- 
ment of  the  glacier  is  coming  slowly  to  its  natural 
equilibrium  and  rest,  and  is,  as  it  were,  making  ready 
to  float  away  with  the  current  to  the  broad  ocean. 

This  fragment  is  the  iceberg. 

Have  I  made  the  ice-stream  clear  ?  its  great  width 
and  depth  ;  its  length  ;  its  steady  flow  ;  the  bound- 
less sources  of  its  origin  ?  It  is  the  Arctic  river. 
To  Greenland  it  is  what  the  Amazon  is  to  South 
America.  The  one  drains  down  to  the  sea  the  pre- 
cipitations of  the  air  which  fall  as  rain  upon  the 
slopes  of  the  Andes  and  the  mountains  of  Brazil, 
and  the  plains  between  ;  the  other  drains  to  the  sea 
the  precipitations  of  the  air  which  fall  as  snows  upon 
the  Greenland  hills  and  mountains.  The  parallel  is 
complete. 

The  surface  of  the  ice-stream  is,  however,  far 
from  smooth,  or  its  flow  noiseless.  Its  substance  is 
not  so  plastic  that  it  yields  to  pressure  readily.  The 
movement  of  its  particles  in  the  molding  process  is 
very  slow.  The  pressure,  hence,  sometimes  be- 
comes too  great.  Cracks  are  opened,  perhaps  down 
through  all  the  hundreds  of  feet  which  compose  its 
depth  ;  and  beginning  as  a  loud  peal,  it  becomes  in 


Snow  and  Ice.  123 

the  end  a  crash.  This  particularly  happens  when 
the  bed  over  which  the  stream  is  flowing  is  very 
rough,  and  the  descent  rapid.  Here  the  surface  of 
the  stream,  losing  its  generally  smooth  character,  is 
crossed  with  great  crevasses  in  every  direction.  On 
the  Auk-pad-lar-tok  Glacier  this  was  nowhere  so 
conspicuous  as  about  the  point  of  a  sharp  headland, 
which,  projecting  far  out  into  the  valley,  caused  the 
ice-stream  to  narrow  itself,  and  to  flow  more  rap- 
idly. This  same  effect  was  observable  a  little  higher 
up,  where  it  had  wound  around  a  hill  which  it  had 
not  quite  covered,  the  dark  rocky  crest  showing 
conspicuously  above  the  white  surface  of  the  stream, 
as  an  island  in  a  river. 

It  is,  perhaps,  not  surprising  that  so  few  people 
should  really  know  what  an  iceberg  is,  seeing  how 
few  people  there  are  who  go  where  icebergs  come 
from.  We  have  seen  that  they  come  from  Green- 
land. (See  note,  p.  142.) 

But  how  do  they  get  down  into  the  region  of  ordi- 
nary observation — into  the  region  of  the  North  At- 
lantic, coming  there  in  season  and  out  of  season,  as 
if  for  no  other  purpose  than  to  worry  the  people  who 
travel  on  the  ships  which  traverse  the  North  At- 
lantic waters. 


124  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

The  answer  is  simple.  They  are  brought  down 
from  Greenland  by  that  great  polar  current  whose 
course  is  now  through  the  Spitzbergen  Sea,  the 
Greenland  Sea,  and  Baffin's  Bay — a  current  which  in 
some  remote  geological  epoch  once  swept  over  the 
greater  part  of  what  is  now  North  America,  as,  at 
the  present  time  it  sweeps  over  the  growing  banks 
of  Newfoundland — a  current  into  which  Lake  Su- 
perior once  discharged  as  a*  gulf ;  then  afterwards, 
Huron  and  Michigan  ;  then  Erie  and  Ontario,  and 
now  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  which  will,  in  the 
course  of  time,  form  another  fresh-water  lake  in  the 
great  chain,  as  the  sea  becomes  more  and  more  filled 
up,  while  another  gulf  and  a  river  still  beyond,  will 
tempt  some  enterprising  explorer  of  a  distant  time  to 
give  a  name. 

Many  of  the  icebergs  that  drift  down  with  this 
current  carry,  imbedded  in  their  very  heart,  vast 
quantities  of  rock  and  sand,  which  are  deposited  at 
the  bottom  of  the  sea  when  the  iceberg  melts. 
Thus  do  they  add  something  every  year  to  the 
shoals  off  Newfoundland  and  to  the  northward,  and 
thus  do  they  strew  the  entire  bed  of  the  polar  cur- 
rent with  bowlders  from  the  Greenland  hills.  When 
these  now  submerged  regions  come  to  be  elevated 


Snow  and  Ice.  125 

above  the  ocean,  the  geologists  of  that  day  will  have 
less  trouble  to  account  for  the  bowlders  being  there, 
than  our  forefathers  had  to  explain  the  presence  of 
similar  masses  on  an  Illinois  prairie,  or  in  the  valleys 
of  the  Mohawk,  the  Potomac,  and  the  Connecticut. 

The  melting  of  the  iceberg  is  far  from  rapid.  It 
requires  many  years  to  mingle  its  crystal  particles 
with  the  waters  of  the  ocean.  Yet  its  rate  of  drift 
being  slow,  and  the  distance  great,  by  the  time  it 
has  reached  the  track  of  vessels  in  the  North  Atlan- 
tic the  largest  part  of  it  has  disappeared  ;  and  im- 
mense though  they  sometimes  appear  to  be  when 
seen  from  the  deck  of  ships  crossing  to  Europe, 
they  are  then  but  a  fragment  of  their  former  great- 
ness. Indeed,  very  few  of  them  ever  reach  so  low  a 
latitude  at  all,  going  to  pieces  long  before  the  cur- 
rent has  carried  them  so  far. 

To  make  the  nature  of  the  iceberg  more  clear  to 
the  reader's  mind,  I  will  use  a  very  homely  illustra- 
tion. 

Observe  the  little  bit  of  ice  that  clicks  in  your 
tumbler  at  dinner-time.  Observe  it  closely,  and 
you  will  perceive  how  very  small  a  part  of  it  floats 
above  the  surface  of  the  water — not  more  than  one- 
eighth  at  the  farthest — while  the  remaining  seven- 


126  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

eighths  float  beneath.  Now,  this  little  bit  of  ice  is 
an  iceberg  in  miniature — an  iceberg  in  every  essen- 
tial feature,  except  that  it  did  not,  in  all  human 
probability,  come  from  Greenland.  In  shape,  in 
general  transparency,  in  the  play  of  light  upon  it,  in 
its  prismatic  character,  in  its  frequently  cavernous 
form,  in  the  general  shape  of  the  projecting  tongues 
which  lie  beneath  the  surface  of  the  water,  in  the 
delicate  mist  which  plays  around  its  summit  in  the 
warm  air,  it  is  the  very  image  of  those  great  floating 
monoliths  of  the  Arctic  frost  which  come  sailing 
down  Baffin's  Bay  with  the  polar  current  in  all  their 
stately  grandeur  and  magnificence,  meeting,  as 
they  tread  their  watery  way,  the  great  billows  of 
the  ocean  with  a  cold  disdain,  sending  them  away 
moaning  and  shattered  in  defeat,  chilling  the  air  for 
leagues  around,  yet  gathering  to  themselves  the  gor- 
geous colors  of  the  sky ;  immovable  from  their 
steadfast  course — majestic  as  the  "  silvery  moon," 
that,  like  the  iceberg,  bathes  its  sides  in  the  trem- 
bling wave. 

The  iceberg  is  the  largest  independent  floating 
body  in  the  universe,  except  the  heavenly  orbs. 
There  is  nothing  approaching  it,  within  the  range  of 
our  knowledge,  on  this  globe  of  ours  ;  and  yet  it  is, 


Snow  and  Ice.  127 

as  we  have  seen,  but  a  fragment  of  the  ice-stream, 
which  is,  in  its  turn,  but  an  arm  of  the  ice-sea. 
And  yet  the  iceberg  is  to  the  great  quantity  of 
Greenland  ice  as  the  paring  of  a  finger  nail  to  the 
human  body — as  a  small  chip  to  the  largest  tree — as 
a  shovelful  of  earth  to  Manhattan  Island.  Yet  mag- 
nify the  bit  of  ice  in  your  tumbler  until  it  becomes, 
to  your  imagination,  a  half  a  mile  in  diameter  each 
way,  and  you  have  a  mass  that  is  far  from  unusual. 
Add  to  this  a  mile,  two  miles  of  length,  and  you 
have  what  may  sometimes  be  seen.  I  have  sailed 
alongside  of  an  iceberg  two  miles  and  a  half,  meas- 
ured with  a  log -line,  before  coming  to  the  end 
of  it. 

The  name  signifies,  as  we  have  seen  before,  ice 
mountain ;  and  it  is  truly  mountainous  in  size. 
Lift  it  out  of  the  water,  and  it  becomes  a  mountain 
one  thousand,  two  thousand,  three  thousand  feet 
high.  In  dimensions,  it  is  as  if  Central  Park  were 
set  adrift  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  An  iceberg  of  the 
size  of  Central  Park  is  far  from  unusual ;  while 
its  surface,  in  form,  is  not  very  unlike.  Like  the 
Park,  it  is  undulating  and  craggy,  and  crossed  by 
ravines  and  dotted  with  lakes,  the  water  of  the 
lakes  being  formed  from  the  melting  snows  of  the 


128  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

late  winter,  and  also  from  the  ice  itself  after  the 
snows  have  disappeared  before  the  warmth  of  the 
summer's  sun.  I  have  even  bathed  in  such  a  lake, 
although  I  am  glad  to  say  but  once,  and  that  was  in 
"  those  days  of  other  years  "  when  the  youthful  in- 
sanity is  strong  to  say  "  I  have  done  it,"  a  disease 
which  I  believe  to  be  amenable  only  to  that  treat- 
ment popularly  known  as  "  sad  experience."  Skating 
on  an  iceberg  lake  is  far  more  satisfactory  and  sen- 
sible. 

Such  are  the  general  features  of  the  iceberg,  as 
they  are  to  be  seen  every  day  in  the  Arctic  waters. 

Let  us  go  back  now  to  the  ice-stream  of  Auk- 
pad-lar-tok,  with  which  we  closed  the  last  sketch. 
Here  we  saw  an  iceberg  leaving  its  hold  upon  the 
land,  breaking  loose  from  the  parent  stream,  and 
restoring  to  the  sea  its  own  again.  I  would  once 
more  call  attention  to  that  ice-stream,  and  show 
more  particularly  its  river-like  character. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  long  line  of  the  glacier  front, 
stretching  away  to  the  opposite  shore,  in  glittering 
white  and  blue  and  green ;  but  it  was  not  an  un- 
broken front.  Near  its  center  there  was  a  dark 
rock,  nearly  imbedded  in  the  ice — the  ice  being  on 
both  sides  of  it,  and  overtopping  it. 


Snow  and  Ice.  129 

This  rock  had  been  an  island.  The  ice-stream, 
pouring  out  into  the  fiord,  had  at  length  touched 
this  island,  and  encroaching  more  and  more  upon  it 
from  year  to  year,  molding  itself  to  the  rock,  had 
finally  attained  the  position  which  I  have  described. 

I  asked  the  guide,  Philip,  if  he  had  observed  any 
change  in  it  during  the  period  of  his  residence  in 
the  fiord. 

"  Oh,  yes,"  said  he,  "  a  very  great  change.  When 
I  first  came  here,  I  could  pull  all  the  way  around 
the  rock  in  my  boat." 

"  How  far  was  the  rock  then  from  the  face  of  the 
ice-stream  ? " 

"A  good  half  English  mile." 

"  How  long  was  the  rock  ?  " 

"  At  least  as  long  as  the  distance  was  from  the 
ice-stream." 

"  How  did  you  learn  all  this  ?  " 

"  I  have  gone  to  it  many  a  time,  and  have  brought 
away  from  it  many  a  barrel  of  eggs,  and  many  a  bag 
of  eider-down." 

Making  all  proper  allowance  for  the  general  dis- 
position of  people  to  magnify  distances,  here  is 
yet  a  most  valuable  observation — a  mile  of  flow, 

according  to  Philip,  in  five-and-twenty  years — almost 
6* 


130  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

seven  inches  for  each  day.  My  own  observation  of 
an  ice-stream,  continued  through  almost  a  year, 
showed,  as  has  been  previously  stated,  a  daily  rate 
of  four  inches.  Suppose  Philip  to  have  even  doub- 
led the  distance  in  his  rough  guessing,  we  have 
still  a  rate  of  flow  equal  to  three  inches  and  a  half 
per  day.  An  inspection  of  the  numerous  breakings 
from  its  front  shows  that  it  must  have  been  con- 
siderable indeed,  judging  from  the  great  numbers  of 
icebergs  that  were  scattered  down  the  fiord,  all  of 
which  were  its  children.  Many  of  the  largest  of 
them  had  lingered  in  the  fiord  ever  since  Philip 
came  there.  Missing  the  deepest  channel,  they  had 
grounded,  and  held  on  for  years  and  years,  until 
they  had  been  gradually  reduced  by  melting,  and 
by  pieces  breaking  from  them,  but  never  yet  were 
small  enough  to  tide  over  the  rocky  bottom  and 
reach  the  sea  outside.  I  looked  upon  these  "  an- 
cients" with  much  reverence. 

But  hark  !  what  was  that  ? 

We  still  stood  upon  the  summit  of  the  bluff,  over- 
looking the  fiord  and  the  ice-stream. 

The  ice-stream  had  been  constantly  emitting 
sounds,  as  I  have  said  before,  sometimes  by  the  break- 
ing off  of  a  small  fragment  from  its  front,  sometimes 


Snow  and  Ice.  131 

by  a  partial  crack  opening  far  up  in  the  body  of  it, 
as  it  strained  in  its  rocky  bed  ;  but  now  a  loud  re- 
port, as  of  "  deep-mouthed  thunder,"  broke  from  its 
profoundest  depths — seemingly,  indeed,  as  if  from 
the  very  bowels  of  the  earth.  It  fairly  shook  the 
ground  on  which  we  stood. 

Philip  said,  quietly,  "The  ice-stream  is  going  to 
calve." 

An  instant  afterward  the  report  was  repeated, 
louder  and  still  more  startling.  The  shock  beneath 
my  feet  was  more  sensibly  felt :  it  seemed  like  the 
first  warning  cry  of  a  coming  earthquake. 

Philip  said  again,  "  See  !  it  is  rising." 

A  portion  of  the  glacier  was  being  lifted  up  by 
the  sea,  A  great  wave  was  rolling  back  with  this 
movement  of  the  ice,  and  was  dashed  wildly  against 
the  ice  in  front. 

An  instant  more,  the  sound,  which  was  before  so 
deep  and  loud,  now  broke  through  the  air  with  a 
crash  that  was  almost  deafening — as  when  a  heavy 
gun  is  fired  near  by. 

I  knew  that  a  monstrous  crack  was  opening  in 
the  ice-stream. 

The  position  of  the  crack  was  soon  seen.  A  frag- 
ment, of  enormous  proportions,  had  been  disen- 


132  Pictures  of  Arctic   Travel. 

gaged.  Its  front  raised  itself  aloft  as  if  it  were 
some  grea':  leviathan  endowed  with  life,  and  while  it 
rose  the  crack  opened  wide.  The  unwieldy  mass 
plunged  forward,  crashing  against  other  ice-masses, 
scattering  the  broken  fragments  to  right  and  left 
with  irresistible  force.  Then  the  inner  side  rose  up 
and  the  front  sank  down,  while  vast  volumes  of 
water  that  had  been  lifted  with  it  went  roaring  and 
hissing  over  its  sides  into  the  foaming  and  violently 
agitated  sea. 

Thus  an  iceberg  had  been  born. 

It  would  be  impossible,  with  mere  words  alone, 
to  give  any  adequate  idea  of  the  action  of  this  new- 
born child  of  the  Arctic  frosts.  Think  of  a  solid 
mass  of  ice,  a  third  of  a  mile  deep  and  more  than 
half  a  mile  in  diameter,  hurled  like  a  mere  toy  into 
the  water,  and  set  to  rolling  to  and  fro  by  the  impe- 
tus of  the  act — as  if  it  were  Nature's  merest  football 
— down  one  side,  until  the  huge  mass  was  nearly  cap- 
sized ;  then  back  again  and  down  the  other  side, 
with  the  same  unresisting  force  ;  and  so  on,  up  and 
down,  swashing  to  and  fro,  for  hours,  before  it  comes 
finally  to  rest.  The  disturbance  of  the  water  was 
inconceivably  fine  ;  waves  of  enormous  magnitude 
were  rolled  up  with  great  violence  against  the  gla- 


Snow  and  Ice.  133 

cier,  covering  it  with  spray  ;  and  vast  billows  came 
tearing  down  the  fiord,  their  progress  marked  by  the 
crackling  and  crumbling  of  the  ice,  which  was  in  a 
state  of  wildest  agitation  throughout  a  space  of 
several  miles.  Over  the  smaller  of  the  icebergs 
these  billows  broached  completely,  breaking  as  if  a 
tempest  were  piling  up  the  waters,  and  heaving  them 
with  infuriated  might  against  a  rocky  shore.  Then, 
to  add  to  the  commotion  thus  made,  the  great  wal- 
lowing iceberg  that  was  the  cause  of  it  all,  was 
dropping  fragments  from  its  sides  with  each  oscilla- 
tion, the  reports  reaching  the  ear  above  the  general 
din  and  clamor.  Then  other  bergs,  as  they  were 
successively  set  in  motion  by  the  waves,  also  dropped 
pieces  from  their  sides  ;  and  at  last,  as  if  it  were 
the  grand  finale  of  the  piece — the  clash  of  the  cym- 
bals and  the  big  bass-drum  of  Nature's  grand  orches- 
tra— a  monstrous  berg,  near  the  middle  of  the  fiord, 
split  in  two,  and,  during  the  noise  of  moving  waters 
and  crumbling  ice,  filled  the  air  with  a  peal  that 
rang  among  the  bergs  and  crags,  and  echoing  from 
hill  to  hill,  died  away  only  in  the  void  beyond  the 
mountain-tops  ;  while  to  the  noisy  rhythm  the  huge 
monsters  of  the  fiord  danced  their  wild,  ungainly 
dance  upon  the  waters. 


134  Pictures  of  Arctic   Travel. 

It  was  many  hours  before  this  state  of  wild  unrest 
was  succeeded  by  a  calm  ;  and  when  at  length  the 
iceberg  that  I  had  seen  born  came  quietly  to  rest, 
and  the  other  icebergs  had  ceased  their  revel  on  the 
troubled  sea,  and  the  billows  had  stilled  their  lash- 
ings, it  seemed  to  me  that,  in  beholding  this  birth  of 
an  iceberg,  I  had  beheld  one  of  the  most  sublime 
exhibitions  of  the  great  forces  of  Nature.  It  was 
indeed  a  convulsion  ! 

My  purpose  being  now  accomplished,  and  my 
curiosity  satisfied,  I  left  the  bluff,  and  returned 
down  the  fiord  to  Philip's  hut,  whence,  after  leaving 
my  guide,  I  proceeded  to  Upernavik,  well  content 
with  what  I  had  seen,  and  feeling  well  repaid,  halt- 
ing by  the  way  only  long  enough  to  inspect  closely 
one  of  the  largest  icebergs  in  the  fiord,  and  around 
which  I  lingered  many  hours. 

This  berg  was  not  only  remarkable  for  its  great 
size,  but  for  its  great  variety  of  feature.  We  rowed 
all  the  way  around  it,  and  measured  it  carefully. 
One  of  its  sides  was  nearly  straight  and  regular, 
having  the  appearance  of  being  broken  away  from 
something.  It  had  a  fracture-look.  This  was  evi- 
dently the  side  which  was  attached  to  the  glacier^ 
Facing  the  sun,  it  glistened  marvelously..  This, 


Snow  arid  Ice.  T35 

side  was  six  thousand  five  hundred  feet  long.  At 
one  end,  it  was  two  hundred  and  forty  feet  high, 
rising  squarely  from  the  sea.  At  the  center,  the 
height  was  less,  being  only  a  hundred  and  sixty  feet. 
At  the  farther  end,  it  was  a  hundred  and  ninety. 
These  measurements  were  made  with  as  much 
accuracy  as  was  possible  under  the  circumstances, 
and  they  are  quite  reliable  within  small  limits.  The 
log-line  and  chronometer  were  of  necessity  the 
means  of  determining  the  length.  By  dropping 
the  "  chip  "  at  the  foot  of  the  berg,  and  then  row- 
ing out  a  hundred  fathoms,  I  obtained  a  tolerably 
accurate  base  line  for  ascertaining  the  altitudes 
— a  pocket  sextant  giving  me  the  necessary  angles. 
By  the  same  method  I  found  the  end  of  the  berg 
to  which  we  came,  after  measuring  the  side,  to  be 
eighteen  hundred  feet  across.  This  terminated  in  a 
rounded  bluff.  Turning  here,  we  came  upon  a  side 
wholly  different  from  the  one  we  had  before  meas- 
ured. It  had  evidently  been  for  a  long  time  the 
glacier  front— for  a  period  of  perhaps  fifteen  or 
twenty  years  at  the  least.  It  was  most  irregular. 
In  places  it  was  cliff-like,  as  the  other,  but  for  the 
most  part  it  was  worn  into  all  sorts  of  irregular 
shapes.  This  had  been  done  partly  by  the  wash- 


136  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

ings  of  the  sea,  and  partly  by  the  streams  of  melted 
snow  which,  in  the  summer-time,  poured  over  the 
glacier  front.  Thus  there  were  bights  eaten  into  it 
that  were  large  enough  to  float  a  frigate.  In  one 
place  there  was  a  considerable  bay,  with  two  islands 
in  it  that  were  very  peculiar.  Around  this  bay  we 
pulled,  and  in  the  valley  or  rather  gorge,  at  one 
angle  of  it,  I  landed,  and,  with  sharp  spikes  in  my 
heels,  and  a  boat-hook  in  my  hand,  I  climbed  up  to 
the  summit  of  the  berg.  Its  surface  was  rolling, 
uneven,  and  craggy.  There  were  two  conspicuous 
hills  upon  it,  one  of  which  was  two  hundred  and 
ninety,  the  other  two  hundred  and  seventy  feet 
above  the  sea-level.  Between  these  hills,  and 
among  others  less  conspicuous,  I  discovered  a  wind- 
ing lake  at  least  a  quarter  of  a  mile  long — the  water 
being  formed  from  the  snows  of  winter,  which,  melt- 
ing with  the  summer's  sun,  had  trickled  down  the 
icy  hill-sides  and  gathered  in  the  valley.  Following 
along  the  margin  of  this  singular  and  beautiful  lake, 
I  came  at  length  to  its  outlet,  where,  through  a 
gorge,  poured  the  superabundant  crystal  waters 
over  a  crystal  bed,  in  a  rapid  torrent,  until,  coming 
at  length  to  the  side  of  the  berg,  the  stream  leaped 
wildly  down  into  the  ocean,  roaring  like  a  young 


Snow  and  Ice.  137 

Niagara.  On  every  side,  indeed,  there  were 
streams,  many  of  them  very  small,  hurrying  to  the 
ocean,  and  dropping  from  the  roof  of  the  iceberg 
like  the  waters  from  a  house-top  on  a  warm  day 
following  a  heavy  fall  of  snow. 

I  wandered  about  among  these  icy  hills  until 
I  really  grew  bewildered,  and  found  my  way  to 
the  exact  place  of  my  ascent,  not  without  embar- 
rassment. The  cause  of  this  was  thus  partially  ex- 
plained :  I  had  kept  my  eye  upon  the  sun,  while  the 
iceberg  was  turning  round  beneath  my  feet.  It  had 
probably  grounded  on  one  corner,  and  the  current 
was  slowly  swinging  it  around  upon  a  pivot.  Before 
this,  however,  I  had  climbed  the  loftiest  hill.  The 
view  was  superb — distant,  as  from  the  summit  of 
Staten  Island,  and  over'  a  sea  where  icebergs  lay 
scattered  like  mammoth  diamonds  set  in  a  waste  of 
lapis  lazuli.  Nor  was  the  neighborhood  devoid  of 
life.  A  flock  of  kittiwake  gulls  flew  up  from  the 
sea,  and  perched  themselves  upon  the  hill,  and  there 
set  up  their  noisy  chatter  ;  and  one  old  "  burgo- 
master," who  had  caught  a  fish,  came  there  to 
swallow  it  in  peace  ;  but,  to  his  evident  surprise  and 
sad  disgust,  he  was  suddenly  pounced  upon  by  a 
predatory  "  jager,"  who  had  seemingly  been  hover- 


138  Pictures  of  Arctic   Travel. 

ing  round  for  just  such  a  chance,  and  with  an  angry 
scream  the  "burgomaster  "  dropped  the  prize. 

It  was  altogether  a  strange  sensation — afloat  at  so 
great  an  elevation,  on  an  ice-mountain  in  the  sea. 
Yet  my  footstool  was  firm  and  solid  as  the  eternal 
hills. 

If  time  and  circumstance  had  permitted,  I  would 
gladly  have  brought  up  my  tent  and  camp-fixtures, 
and  have  slept  and  lain  there  for  a  day  or  so,  watch- 
ing the  grand  panorama  of  the  hills  and  sea  around, 
while  the  sun,  like  a  golden  wheel  in  the  blue  sky, 
rolled  round  and  round  me,  never  setting,  but  chang- 
ing from  hour  to  hour  the  aspect  of  every  object 
within  the  range  of  vision — now  silvering  an  ice- 
berg, now  coloring  it,  now  flaunting  it  in  blue  and 
now  in  green  ;  now  blazing  with  red  the  ragged 
cliffs  of  the  fiord,  now  throwing  them  in  shadow, 
as  if  they  were  the  gloomy  wall  encompassing  the 
abyss  of  Dante's  giants  ;  now  gilding  the  distant 
mountains,  now  robing  them  in  purple ;  now  whit- 
ening the  far-off  ice-sea,  now  making  it  a  sea  of 
rubies,  then  blending  it  with  the  blue  sky. 

But  this  camp-life  on  an  iceberg  could  not  be,  so 
I  returned  to  my  boat,  and  continued  my  survey  of 
the  floating  mountain.  First  I  explored  the  bay 


Snow  and  Ice.  139 

where  I  had  landed.  The  bottom  of  this  bay  was 
the  sloping  ice,  shoaling  gradually  as  we  went  far- 
ther in  through  a  distance  of  a  hundred  yards  ;  and, 
as  I  looked  down  over  the  side  of  the  boat  upon 
the  ice  beneath,  through  what  was  at  first  a  few 
fathoms,  but  finally  only  a  few  inches  of  water,  I 
thought  I  had  never  seen  so  soft  and  exquisite  a 
color,  or  one  so  perfectly  graduated  in  its  various 
tints,  as  the  liquid  green  through  which  we  sailed. 
The  islands  in  the  bay,  which  I  have  spoken  of 
before,  were  but  two  hummocks  that  rose  a  few  feet 
above  the  surface— as  Governor's  Island  and  Ellis 
Island  in  New  York  harbor. 

Leaving  the  bay,  we  continued  our  course  past 
broken-down  turrets  and  dismantled  towers  and 
ruined  spires,  between  which  lay  huge  clefts  filled 
with  a  deep  cerulean  light,  and  great  caverns  of 
Cimmerian  darkness,  in  which  the  slow-movmg  bil- 
lows were  caught  and  confined,  until,  tired  of  their 
imprisonment,  their  hollow  voices  came  gurgling 
out,  as  the  loud  breathing  of  some  mighty  monster 
of  the  deep,  who  was  exhausting  his  feeble  efforts 
to  move  the  giant  mountain  from  his  path. 

This  side  was  six  thousand  feet  in  length.  The 
other  end  was  thirty-five  hundred.  Thus,  in  mak- 


140  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

ing  the  complete  circuit,  we  had  pulled  almost  three 
and  a  half  miles.  I  averaged  the  whole  altitude  at 
a  hundred  and  eighty  feet  above  the  sea-level.  This 
would  give  a  total  average  depth  of  fourteen  hun- 
dred and  forty  feet — between  a  quarter  and  a  third 
of  a  mile.  Multiply  these  dimensions  together,  and 
we  get  23,850,000,000  of  cubic  feet.  Convert  this 
into  tons,  and  all  the  ships  in  the  known  world  are 
nothing  to  it.  Freight  them  all,  and  you  would 
hardly  make  an  impression  upon  it.  Convert  it  into 
money,  and,  at  the  present  market  rates  for  the 
skimmings  of  the  Boston  ponds,  you  have  .the  na- 
tional debt  and  more. 

It  is  only  by  such  figuring  that  we  can  form  any- 
thing like  an  adequate  idea  of  the  enormous  magni- 
tude of  this  vagrant  of  the  polar  seas.  Its  beauties 
are  not  so  easily  defined.  A  solid  and  a  mighty,  it 
is  yet  a*  subtle  object.  The  light  plays  through  it  as 
through  the  opal.  Its  side  is  blazed  with  crimson 
a'nd  gold  and  purple.  Here  we  see  the  emerald, 
there  the  chalcedony  ;  transparent  quartz  in  one 
place,  sapphire  and  the  flashing  ruby  in  another. 

These  varying  colors,  as  seen  in  the  sunlight,  are 
due  in  a  measure  to  its  parallel  lines  of  stratification, 
which  are  faintly  perceptible,  and  which,  like  the 


Snow  and  Ice.  141 

multiplied  rings  of  the  old  forest  oak,  during  the  long 
period  of  years  or  ages  through  which  it  has  gone 
on  slowly  and  steadily  forming  in  the  parent  glacier ; 
partly  to  the  irregularities  of  the  fractured  surface, 
the  myriad  of  reflecting  faces  placed  at  all  angles  to 
the  sun  and  to  the  light  ;  partly  to  the  sunlight,  dis- 
solving in  the  sharp  prisms  of  its  sides,  and  stealing 
through  the  mist  and  spray  of  the  falling  waters, 
flinging  here  and  there  the  tender  colors  of  the  rain- 
bow along  the  pure,  clear  surface  of  its  glittering 
walls  ;  and  partly  to  the  waters  of  the  sea  in  which 
it  floats — -sometimes  green,  sometimes  blue,  always 
wondrously  clear,  and  always  mirroring  the  giant 
that  it  floats — its  sublime  proportions,  its  crumbling 
ruins,  its  cascades,  and  the  light  which  flickers  round 
it — while  bearing  it  aloft  in  triumph,  and  while  the 
laughing  waves,  encouraged  by  the  sun,  leap  round 
and  kiss  it  gently,  and  with  each  touch  steal  away 
the  crystal  particles  which  were  theirs  of  old,  and 
are  theirs  of  right. 

More  than  this  I  cannot  say  for  the  floating  moun- 
tain. Words  fail  us  utterly  in  the  description  of 
such  a  mighty  work  of  Nature — fail  us,  as  do  the 
colors  of  the  painter.  Who  can  paint,  or  who  can 
describe  the  leap  of  Niagara,  or  the  roar  that  rises 


142  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

from  the  crystal  abyss  ?     The  iceberg,  in  its  growth 
and  birth  and  immensity,  is  the  nearest  parallel. 

And  what  pen  can  describe,  or  pencil  paint  its 
age  ?  How  long  since  its  crystals  were  snow-flakes 
dropped  from  the  air  upon  a  Greenland  mountain 
top  ?  It  was  not  a  few  years,  or  even  centuries  ago. 
Its  existence  on  the  earth  in  the  great  ice-sea  and 
stream  has  been  longer  than  that  of  the  whole  hu- 
man race,  from  the  birth  of  Adam. 


NOTE   TO   PAGE   123. 

I  have  said  that  the  icebergs  come  from  Greenland — not, 
however,  that  glaciers  are  not  found  on  other  Arctic  lands  ;  but, 
so  insignificant  are  they  in  comparison  that  they  might  seem 
scarcely  to  deserve  the  name.  The  fragments  that  break 
away  from  them  are  few  in  number  and  of  trifling  dimensions. 
The  large  icebergs  found  on  the  Labrador  coast  reach  there 
from  Greenland,  under  the  pressure  of  easterly  winds  of  long 
duration,  and  not  from  any  part  of  America,  and  are  thus 
thrown,  early  in  the  spring,  into  a  strong  southerly  current, 
which  carries  them  to  the  Newfoundland  Banks.  Thus  may 
we  account  for  their  frequency  or  infrequency  in  the  track  of 
ships  during  different  years;  for  the  current  along  the  west 
coast  of  Greenland  sets  north. 


Snow  and  Ice.  143 

So  far  as  observation  extends,  glaciers  proper  terminate  on 
the  west  or  American  side  of  Baffin  Bay,  at  Hayes  Sound, 
which  runs  westward  from  Smith  Sound,  between  latitude  79° 
and  79"  45',  separating  the  Ellesmere  Land  of  Admiral  Ingle- 
field  (discovered  in  1852)  from  Grinnell  Land,  of  my  own  dis- 
covery, in  1854,  and  which  I  subsequently  traced  in  1861  to 
latitude  82  30',  without  observing  anything  like  a  real  glacier. 
This  may  be  found  difficult  of  explanation  ;  but  it  is  well 
known  that  glaciers  have  never  been  observed  on  mountains 
of  limestone  formation,  of  which  Grinnell  Land  is  mainly 
composed.  Spitzbergen  presents  a  splendid  array  of  glaciers, 
but  their  discharge  by  iceberg  is  not  large,  and  may  scarcely 
be  said  to  exist  at  all,  in  the  Greenland  sense,  since  the  gla- 
ciers there,  instead  of,  as  in  Greenland,  pouring  into  the  sea, 
mostly  reach  the  summit  of  great  cliffs,  where  huge  masses 
tumble  from  them  into  the  water.  In  this  connection  I  can- 
not do  better  than  to  quote  from  Lord  Dufferin,  who,  in  his 
admirable  book,  Letters  from  High  Latitudes,  thus  writes  : 

"  These  glaciers  are  the  principal  characteristic  of  the  scen- 
ery in  Spitzbergen  ;  the  bottom  of  every  valley  in  every  part 
of  the  island  is  occupied,  and  generally  completely  filled  by 
them.  *  *  We  ourselves  got  a  view — though  a  distant  one 
— of  ice-rivers,  which  must  have  been  most  extensive  ;  and 
Dr.  Scoresby  mentions  several  which  actually  measured  forty 
or  fifty  miles  in  length,  and  nine  or  ten  in  breadth,  while  the 
precipice  formed  by  their  fall  into  the  sea  was  sometimes  up- 
wards of  400  or  500  feet  high.  Nothing  is  more  dangerous 
than  to  approach  these  cliffs  of  ice.  Every  now  and  then 
huge  masses  detach  themselves  from  the  face  of  the  crystal 


144  Pictures  of  Arctic  Travel. 

steep,  and  topple  over  into  the  water ;  and  woe  be  to  the 
unfortunate  ship  which  might  happen  to  be  passing  below. 
Scoresby  himself  once  actually  witnessed  a  mass  of  ice,  the  size 
of  a  cathedral,  thunder  down  into  the  sea  from  a  height  of 
400  feet  " — a  mass  which,  in  the  Greenland  waters,  would  be 
the  merest  pigmy,  and  would  not  be  called  an  iceberg,  though 
the  avalanche  must  have  presented  a  grand  and  startling 
spectacle.  No  large  icebergs  can  be  discharged  in  this  man- 
ner. 


THE  END. 


